Now you have your acorn crop gathered and cleaned (just acorns left, no debris. The next step is to dry the acorns. They can be racked or spread so air circulates freely. Give them two or three weeks to dry and to rid themselves of any curculio infestation. Make sure your setup will allow the curculio larvae to drop out of the acorns.Curculio proboscideus , C. sulcatulus , C. orthorhynchus , C. nascius , and C. longidens breed in northern red oak acorns (Gibson 1982). Dispose of the curculios.
Now to sort the good from the bad acorns. Here is how you separate them, and get the good ones. It is called the float test.
Get a 20-litre bucket (smaller if you do not have many acorns, or bigger if you have a lot. Or use several buckets.)
Fill each about 2/3s with water. Dump the acorns in, a few handsful at a time. Right away, the bad acorns float, the good'uns sink.
Scoop out the floaters for your composter.
Put the keepers in a burlap or other loose woven sack. Repeat until your whole crop is processed. Let them drain.
Tag the bag(s) with your name, address, phone, and the date. Weigh them if you want, and record that on the tag also.
Haul them over to Vera's experimental oil extraction kitchen at 374 Allbirch Road.
Good job! Well done! Follow up with Vera on how the oil extraction part of the experiment is coming along.
BTW, how about having your very own Acorn Tuque for the winter solstice? Let's tell Vera we need them!
Canada Nutculture Association, Ottawa, Canada: "Progress through Research & Development"
Processing your acorn crop