The Second Annual Acorn Harvest begins in August. This year, we will be gathering Acorns outside of the City of Alameda, into Alameda County, and beyond.
The reason for this is two-fold.
The first, almost all of the Oak trees in the City of Alameda are exclusively Coast Live Oak. These trees are in the Red Oak family.
The second, is that we have new partnerships and collaborations sprouting throughout the San Francisco Bay Area.
Red Oak Family? Why does this even matter?
Red Oak Trees have a two year acorn cycle. Meaning, the acorns take two years to grow and mature. In the context of the Acorn Harvest, this means no mature acorns will be available in Alameda until 2026–two years from our first harvest in 2024.
Oh… So which Oak Trees are going to have acorns, then?
White Oak Acorns mature in one growing year.
This is actually great as far as the harvest goes. Because we’ll be hunting some of the most tasty acorns available. White Oak Acorns have relatively low tannic content compared to the Coast Live Oak acorns we had in abundance last year.
If you attended any of our Acorn Processing Workshops, Acorn Flour Production Days, or any of our Acorns! Culinary Series events, then you had the opportunity to taste these acorns in their various states of processing.
As an aside: One of our long-term goal is to produce blends of acorn flour for both taste and function. So being able to introduce you to these different varieties of Acorns, to harvest, taste, and cook with, is big plus in and of itself.
How do you find these White Oak trees?
We’re using a mix of GIS Analysis and In-Person Verification. Using Open Source Data we found through the California Oaks website, we were able to access several raster layers of relevant data, and then convert them into vector form we could overlay onto our own custom made maps to accurately target areas were would could find the oak trees we need.
Our next step was to find, identify, and surveil these trees in our area of interest; and to keep a running log of acorn ripeness to help time acorn harvest dates that we (hopefully) can communicate to our dedicate harvest volunteers with advance notice.
That’s all great; but how can I help?
We’re so glad you asked!
- We want to find property owners/land managers who have oak trees that currently have ripening acorns.
- We can describe this to you more in depth, but tl;dr the acorns need to be big, and not tiny little buds.
- We want to find people who are willing to surveil the acorns in their area.
- We need to start building teams, and training people to harvest acorns.
- We’re looking for donations of LARGE BACKPACKS, HUGE RUCKSACKS, BACKPACKING BAGS, etc.
- We’re also looking to raise the funds to properly hydrate and ensure the safety of our Harvest Teams.
Your donations are tax deductible. We can provide donations for any donation.
Alameda Native History Project is fiscally sponsored by The Hack Foundation (d.b.a. Hack Club), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit (EIN: 81-2908499).
You can also help plan the 2025 Acorn Harvest!
Lead a harvest team!
Introduce us to property owners and land managers!
Organize a donation drive!
Co-host a fundraising event with us!
The possibilities are both exciting and endless! And exciting because they’re endless!
Join us for the Acorn Harvest Planning Meetings!
Bi-Weekly Meetings
Starting January 5th, 2025
Every 2 weeks on Sunday
Until October 26, 2025
From 10am-11:30am
We’re still holding bi-weekly Acorn Harvest Planning Meetings.
Check our calendar at https://events.nativehistoryproject.org
