ACORNS! Season Two

Welcome to Season Two:
The Second Annual Acorn Harvest

What It Is:

The ACORNS! Project Arc is a series of activities with the end goal of making Acorn Flour for the first time in over 300 years; and to make that acorn flour available to Local Tribes, and Indigenous Communities.

In our first year, we successfully harvested, stored, and produced Acorn Flour. With the experience and knowledge gained, we are now ready to scale up and engage more people. Unlike some organizations that only want your money, we have meaningful volunteer opportunities for native and non-native folks alike and your donations will help make these unique events open to everyone.

The ACORNS! Project Arc consists of the following activities. All ages and abilities are welcome. Donations are much appreciated. These events are free and open to the general community.

HAPPENING NOW!!

Acorn Harvest Build Day

UPCOMING!

PAST:

Find more on our Events Page!

The ACORNS! Project Arc:
A Year of Restoring Indigenous Foodways

• Acorn Granary Challenge (July 2025)
  Make an Acorn Granary with your friends and community members. Traditional acorn storage container. Used to hold acorns overwinter.
  • June: Gather materials
  • July–August: Build granaries
  • December: Seal granaries
• Acorn Harvest (August through December 2025)
  Experience the Acorn Harvest first-hand. Harvest, Sort, Wash, and Store Acorns during the Acorn Harvest.
  • August: Build harvesting tools and receive training
  • September–November: Harvest, wash, and sort acorns
  • November–December: Pack granaries
• Acorn Flour Production (December 2025 through March 2026)
  Crack, Inspect, Winnow, Grind, and Wash Acorns to create acorn flour.
  • January-April: Process Acorns
• Acorn Processing Workshop (March 2026)
  Learn how to make Acorn Flour at home, using what you can find in your kitchen.
  • Two Workshops in March
• Culinary Series & Foodways (April 2026)
  Come together to cook a variety of contemporary indigenous foods featuring Acorn Flour and Acorn Meal.
  • April: Culinary classes (every Sunday)
  • May: Distribution and closing celebrations

Why Is It Important?

Acorns are the most important food stock for California Indigenous People. They are a gift from the Oak Trees; and feed all the animals around, including us. Oak trees are life givers.

300 years of colonization have left us without much of the old traditions and knowledge needed to process acorns. This project is reawakening our tradition of eating Acorns. And we dare to collect data to fill the gaps, and highlight Indigenous STEM every step of the way.

By processing and washing acorns, and offering them to the Indigenous Community at scale, we are attempting to decolonize our diets, and therefore, our bodies. Eating Acorns helps to reawaken sleeping pathways in Indigenous bodies, and provides part of a specific mix of nutrients our bodies require to be healthy, and strive.

So reopening this Indigenous foodway (from the tree to the table) is not only an act of decolonization, it’s a pathway to healthy living.

Open Format

The acorn harvest is a way for non-native people to give back. Engage in the reparative justice of helping to reopen an Indigenous foodway that’s been shut for 300 years.

We know that you want to do more than just give money to an organization and hope it goes to the right place.

We also know that there is a need for education around local indigenous history.

The Acorn Harvest is a once in a lifetime opportunity to give back to the people whose land we are all guests on through an immersive experience that provides a Tangible Tribal Benefit.

The Culinary Series

As a way to introduce Contemporary Native American Cuisine to the public, the ACORNS! Culinary Series introduces acorns as an ingredient through a series of culinary classes each with its own theme highlighting the flour we just produced together.

Through experiencing and experiment with Indigenous Ingredients and Indigenous Cuisine, we expand the potential for locally sourced Indigenous Foods and Ingredients.

One of the most amazing parts is showing people the incredibly gorgeous and delicious foods you can produce with Gluten-Free, Vegan ingredients. This is not just an invitation to eat healthier, it’s a pathway to thriving in balance with the plants and animals we share this planet with.

Note: Not all recipes are Vegan, or Gluten-Free. In season two (2025), we will cook a variety of different Traditional proteins.

Join The Movement!

Official Volunteer Form

Choose any or all:

• Indigneous Land Lab – Gathering, Processing and Preparing Natural Resources to Build With/Use as Tools. Year-Round activities which augment our operations.
• Acorn Granary Challenge – Process natural materials and use them to build the Acorn Granary [a traditional Native American storage device] with fellow community members of All Ages.
• Annual Acorn Harvest – Community-wide series of events from August to December where participants of All Ages can learn how to harvest, sort, wash, and store acorns through hands-on experience.
• Acorn Flour Production – Crack, Peel, and Grind Acorns into Acorn Meal, which will be Packed and Loaded into the Acorn Leaching Machine. Finished flour will be used for the ACORNS! Culinary Series and offered to Local Tribes and Indigenous Communities.

Help Plan the Harvest

Bi-Weekly Meetings
Saturdays
From 10am-11:30am

Online Meeting for prospective volunteers, land owners, land stewards, and other people interested in participating in the 2025 Acorn Harvest.

Use this link to sign up for the Planning Meetings

Support ACORNS!

Help us Reopen an Indigenous Foodway.

The ACORNS! Project Arc is restoring a system that colonization tried to erase—a way of living, eating, and relating that sustained California’s Indigenous Peoples for generations.

For the first time in over 300 years, we’re making and sharing real Acorn Flour again. Not as a symbol, but as a traditional, culturally appropriate food. One that connects people to land, to each other, and to a deeper form of nourishment—physical, cultural, and ancestral.

This work is open to everyone.
All ages. All abilities. Free of charge.
But it’s not free to do.

We received a grant from the City of Alameda’s Public Art Commission—but we were awarded only half of what we requested.

And under the terms of that grant, we’re not allowed to use any of those funds for food or beverages.

That means:

• No water for volunteers
• No ingredients for the Culinary Series
• No shared meals at community events

In addition, because the funding was cut in half, we had to scale back important parts of the project:

• Stipends for Native chefs and cultural educators
• Paid roles for youth participants
• Access to food-safe kitchen space for workshops and prep
• Outreach and invitations to the families we haven’t reached yet

So we’re asking for your help—not just to restore what was cut, but to care for each other in ways public funding won’t allow.

This year, we’re also growing. Through new partnerships in Alameda County and beyond, we’re bringing Indigenous foodways into public learning spaces—opening up new ways to connect, learn, and heal across generations.

What your donation makes possible:

• Water, food, and shade for elders, kids, and volunteers
• Ingredients and materials for Indigenous cooking workshops
• Stipends for Native educators and youth leaders
• Kitchen space to safely prepare and store the food we reclaim together
• Community outreach and expanded public programming

This isn’t a symbolic gesture.
It’s a real, tangible act of solidarity.

We don’t measure wealth by what we keep.
We measure it by what we restore.

Support the project.
Join the movement.