Alameda Native History Project

Tag: acorn granary challenge

  • August 2025: Reopening Indigenous Foodways, Expanding the Work

    Something powerful is happening this August.

    We’re reconnecting with land, deepening relationships, and bringing more people into that process. The Alameda Native History Project is expanding its reach, partnering with libraries and organizations across Alameda, Contra Costa, and Santa Clara counties to support land-based learning and reopen Indigenous foodways that have been silenced, but never lost.

    If you would like to partner with us, please take a minute to read and understand the Working With Us page before reaching out.

    We are excited to be working with all of our new partners around the San Francisco Bay Area. And we look forward to announcing more events as we get further in to the harvest season.

    Library Partnerships That Build More Than Granaries

    This month, we’re collaborating with the Alameda County Library on two public events that center Indigenous knowledge and invite families, elders, and young people into relationship with the land.

    Learn More

    On August 9, we’ll be at Centerville Library for the Acorn Mini Festival, a family-friendly gathering that includes crafts, games, and granary building. Participants will learn about acorns and oak trees while engaging in activities that reflect generations of care and connection. Acorns are the most important food stock for California Indigenous people. They’re a gift from the oaks, and they feed the land, the animals, and us.

    Learn More

    Then on August 27, we’ll be at San Lorenzo Library to lead a hands-on Acorn Granary Workshop, where participants will help construct a traditional storage structure. These granaries are part of a food system that sustained Indigenous people through the winter and protected what the land had given. We’ll also share about harvesting practices, oak identification, and what it means to be part of this cycle today. A follow-up acorn processing workshop will take place in the fall.

    Public institutions have a responsibility to support cultural visibility. These library partnerships are an example of what it looks like when that responsibility is taken seriously.

    Willow Harvests

    This work is grounded in Traditional Ecological Knowledge. Every willow reed we gather, every acorn we collect, comes from a relationship. These aren’t activities designed for show. They’re teachings that carry responsibilities.

    On August 7, we’ll hold an invitation-only Willow Harvest at the Indigenous Land Lab, a protected area with no cell service, no pavement, and no spectators. Everything we bring in, we carry. Everything we take, we give back for. This harvest is about learning through presence and care, not documentation.

    Use the Volunteer Signup Form and check the box for “Indigenous Land Lab” to get early and exclusive invites to events like the Willow Harvest, Pine Bough Gathering, Berry Picking, or More.

    Register

    On August 24, we’ll host a public Willow Harvest for people who are ready to engage with seasonal cycles and learn the protocols that come with them. These reeds will be used to build future granaries.

    Acorn Harvest Training

    Register

    We’re holding an Acorn Harvest Training on August 17 in Alameda. We’ll cover identification of red and white oak species, how to read the land for timing, and how to harvest without harm. We teach what the Honorable Harvest requires: you take only what’s given. You use everything you take. You care for what feeds you. You give back.

    This isn’t a curriculum. It’s how we live.

    Why This Matters

    Food is Medicine

    Traditional Food As Medicine

    This isn’t about reviving lost traditions. It’s about repairing relationships that were interrupted. And healing ourselves.

    Reopening Indigenous foodways means returning to ways of being that are grounded in reciprocity, intention, and care. Returning to wellbeing by turning away from over-processed sugars and engineered fats that our bodies were not intended to eat, and which do not fulfill our most basic nutritional needs.

    The work is Indigenously-led and Tribally-aligned. It’s built to last, shaped by those who hold cultural memory and who live in relationship with the land. It’s not a trend. It’s a commitment.

    And we are inviting you to join us in these once-in-a-lifetime opportunities to take part in traditional California Indigenous activities in a respectful and appropriate way, while providing a tangible tribal benefit to the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe of the San Francisco Bay Area.

    How to Get Involved

    We’ve launched a new sign-up form to help grow our regional network of volunteers and supporters. If you’ve attended a past event or want to be invited to upcoming harvests, teachings, and builds, we invite you to sign up and stay connected.

    Signup

    How to Support Us

    Alameda Native History Project is a fiscally sponsored organization. All donations are tax deductible.

    Your donation will help us reopen Indigenous foodways, and produce culturally relevant, nutritious, traditional food–at scale–for the first time in over 300 years.

    Where your funds go:

    • Safety Equipment & Supplies
      We provide a safe platform to reopen Indigenous foodways
      • Heat Safety
      • First Aid
      • Shade Structures
    • Volunteer Care
      Essentials for Outdoor Work, honestly viewed as another part of “Safety”
      • Hydration (Water + Electrolytes)
      • Protein Bars and Energy Chews
      • Rest area supplies (Folding chairs, Cooling towels)
    • Tools & Equipment
      • Wood acorn tenders
      • Food-safe buckets and containers
      • Cold-leach and drying setup
    Donate Now

    We also accept in-kind donations of goods and materials. Please reach out to us at give@nativehistoryproject.org .

    We look forward to seeing you soon!

  • Harvest to Table: Experience the Flavors of Alameda’s Acorn Revival

    Discover Alameda’s Acorn Revival, reconnecting community with indigenous foodways through harvest, processing, and culinary celebration.

    The First Annual Acorn Harvest is part of a series of events by the Alameda Native History Project known as the ACORNS! Project Arc. This series was made possible in part by a grant through the Alameda County Arts Commission’s ARTSFUND.

    ACORNS! Consists of four main parts:

    • Acorn Granary Challenge
    • Annual Acorn Harvest
    • Acorn Processing
    • ACORNS! Culinary Series

    The Acorn Granary Challenge

    A series of events in the community. We invite community members to come together and challenge themselves to create an Acorn Granary, a traditional Native American Storage device to hold acorns throughout the year—but, specifically, built for the purpose of holding acorns over winter, because the Acorn Harvest is in the fall.

    Through gathering natural materials and processing them into the supplies we use to build the granaries, participants will gain first-hand knowledge and experience of the importance of access to natural materials and the challenges of preparing for winter. Community members will discover that survival cannot be done alone and that the challenge of the Acorn Granary is not one person against nature. It is about how communities come together and build natural, regenerative systems to adapt and evolve with the landscape in a respectful and sustainable way.

    When we came together in July, we came as a small group of individuals taking part in the first-ever Granary Challenge. Our participants ranged from 2nd and 3rd graders, college undergraduates, parents, and grandparents, from diverse social, cultural, and economic backgrounds. And we want you to know, that the framework of our granary was built by our youngest participants—and we are amazed, grateful, and humbled by their instinctive expertise and boundless enthusiasm.

    About the Granary

    Our Acorn Granary is hosted in the community by the Alameda Point Collaborative Farm2Market. Our granary was built using willow reeds and bay leaves donated from the Land Partners in Castro Valley, pine boughs and poles gathered locally, twine from local hardware stores, and the granary is topped with marine canvas donated from Pacific Crest Canvas.

    The Annual Acorn Harvest

    The Harvest runs from September through November. The efforts of this community-led initiative are aimed at reopening indigenous foodways. Acorns have not been gathered for food in Alameda, and much of the Bay Area, for over 300 years. Part of decolonizing ourselves, our stomachs, and the places we live, relies on reconnecting with the natural world around us and partaking in the ancient practices of this land.

    By practicing sustainable, regenerative agriculture, we are becoming good stewards of our natural world, making space, and opening the pathways to food sovereignty, healing, and wellness for ourselves, and for more than 25,000 Native American/Alaskan Native and Indigenous People currently living in the San Francisco Bay Area.

    Even though this was the first-ever Acorn Harvest announced in the City of Alameda in recent history—with a limited budget, and not a lot of marketing involved—we were tremendously grateful and surprised by the wellspring of support from our friends and neighbors in Alameda, and from our followers on social media.

    The people who volunteered with us for the Annual Acorn Harvest ranged in age from young to old and represented a large contingent from many different social, cultural, and economic backgrounds. The Acorn Harvest was truly a family event, and we were honored to create these bonds and reconnect, together, with the natural urban forest, animals, and environment we depend on, but often overlook.

    Through our community-building and sustainable practices, we helped to divert edible food from waste bins and compost piles. The acorns we did not use for food, we shared with 100K Trees For Humanity, which will germinate and plant new Oak trees in an effort “to increase our urban forest canopies, restore natural habitats, increase urban carbon sequestration capacity to help cities meet carbon reduction goals and for greater equity for cooler healthier communities.”

    Acorn Processing & ACORNS! Culinary Series

    The acorns we harvested are now being stored over winter in safe locations around the island. In the spring, we will begin processing our harvested acorns to produce Acorn Flour, and Acorn Meal, which we will offer to local Indigenous communities, the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe of the San Francisco Bay Area, and will also be used for our ACORNS! Culinary Series—featuring Traditional and Contemporary Indigenous, and International Cuisine. Our culinary series is generously hosted by the Alameda Park and Recreation Department, at the Mastick Senior Center, and will take place every Sunday in April 2025.

    Find out more!

    For more information on how to attend the ACORNS! Culinary Series, volunteer for the 2025 Annual Acorn Harvest, or process acorns to create nutritious culturally significant food for our Local Indigenous Communities

    Visit https://acorns.nativehistoryproject.org/

  • Acorn Granary Challenge Produces Storage For 2024 Harvest

    What is an Acorn Granary?

    Acorn Granaries are traditional Native American storage containers used to hold foods like dried berries, rice, squash, and tree nuts…. (In this case: acorns from the city-wide acorn harvest happening this fall.) …And keep them safe from animals and the environment over winter.

    What is the purpose of an Acorn Granary?

    To store food that people needed to survive during the coldest parts of winter, when no plants grow, and all of the animals are hibernating, or have migrated to warmed areas.

    Why are Acorn Granaries important?

    Acorns were one of the single most important food sources in California [Heizer 1957]. Over winter, the bounties of California’s many edible plants, and the abundance of wildlife normally acquired through hunting, trapping, or fishing, is replaced with a barren landscape.

    This is why it’s so important to gather as much food as possible; and to protect it from water, wind, rain, and the animals–who also depend on caches to survive through the winter.

    How widespread is the use of Acorn Granaries?

    It cannot be overstated: Acorns were one of the single most important food sources in California [Heizer 1957]. Most families had an acorn granary [Gifford 1932; Fremont 1843]. Granaries were meant to hold acorns as they dried over winter, however, granaries would be kept and maintained for many years.

    How many acorns does an Acorn Granary hold?

    Some granaries would hold just enough acorns to support a family until the next harvest. Other granaries could hold “ten to twenty sacks of acorns” [Gifford 1932]. Although, there’s no specific weight or volume measurement for how much a “sack” is. Heizer (in 1957), noted that Patwin communities had granaries with a capacity of about 6 to 10 bushels of acorns.

    Several studies included dimensions of varying types of granaries made by different California Native Tribes:

    On average, the granaries were about 3-4 feet in diameter, up to 10 feet high, and at least 2 feet off the ground.

    How many acorns were harvested during the Acorn Harvest?

    The only limit to how many acorns could be harvested was dependent upon the method of collection, and how many people were involved in the harvest.

    The Acorn Harvest happens once a year, when there is a nearly limitless supply of acorns adorning the more-than 87 million oak trees which are endemic to California. [Oaks 2040]

    Competition for Acorns

    Over 100 different kinds of animals eat acorns, including (but not limited to):

    • Bear
    • Chipmunk
    • Crows
    • Deer
    • Ducks
    • Foxes
    • Jack Rabbit
    • Jays
    • Mallards
    • Mice
    • Oppossums
    • Quail
    • Raccoons
    • Squirrel
    • Turkeys
    • Voles
    • Wild Hogs
    • Woodpeckers

    Every single one of these animals would gladly take a pre-foraged “snack pack” [that’s what a bear would call it] in a season when no other food is available.

    This is why it is necessary to create: (a) a sturdy food container that (b) hides the scent of food, and (c) deters animals from eating through the container into the actual food inside.

    What are the different types of Acorn Granaries?

    Below is a list granary types–but the names aren’t official. There are no standardized names for granaries because over 300 unique languages were spoken in California.

    • Coil-type –
      Acorns chill under a coil basket made from cordage. (Usually on a platform.)
    • Hanging basket –
      Hung from sturdy tree-limbs, or from a frame made from lashed wood.
    • Tree platform –
      Resting on platform build in the crook of a tree.
    • Free-standing –
      Made with sturdy legs to resist wind, and other forces.
    • Rock-butt –
      Granary resting on a rock. Sometimes stabilized by legs, or tied to frame/tree limb, or all of the above.

    Construction Materials

    Willow reeds & poles, and California Bay boughs, were gathered from the Indigenous Land Lab

    • Willow reeds and poles
    • Leaves and boughs from:
      • California Bay Laurel (Umbellularia californica)
      • Bay Laurel (Laurus nobilis)
    • Natural twine
    Bay Laurel boughs were gathered during the Acorn Granary Challenge Session #3, at the Alameda Point Collaborative Farm2Market, where our events were held.

    Acorn Granary Construction

    After learning about the history, usage, and types of Acorn Granaries, we began granary construction over four sessions in July 2024.

    Rolling the frame onto the hoops.

    Completed granary frame.

    Loosely woven base of the granary. (Take note the base is larger than the frame.)

    Granary frame stuffed with bay leaves, sitting on base base, on top of tree rounds (with willow shims, lol.)

    Shoring up the granary, using willow poles to stabilize with tension & compression. (MIT undergraduate remix.)

    Granary Status: Ready for Acorns

    Special Thanks & Acknowledgments

    A huge shoutout, and special thanks goes out to the APC Farm2Market, for hosting our event, and the acorn granary.

    Another huge shoutout goes to the Land Partners, who are hosting the Indigenous Land Lab, another Acorn Granary, and have graciously allowed us to harvest all of the willow and California Bay we used (and will use) for Acorn Granary Construction.

    Special thanks goes out to everyone who participated in the Acorn Granary Challenge: Sandra, Liz, The Li & Pan Families, Natalie, Skipper.

    We also want to acknowledge the Alameda County Arts Commission’s ARTSFUND for their part in funding this awesome, and ongoing, experience.

    What’s next?

    The First Annual Acorn Harvest begins this Fall!

    Stay tuned for more announcements!