Fall Foliage: Where to See the Best and What to do with Yours
Fall is called “fall” because… stuff falls off the trees! Acorns (and all the other nuts) and of course: leaves! Alright… well that wraps up the blog post.
You’re playing that little jingle in your head right now
Okay, but seriously… as stuff is getting ready to fall in your yard, this year I challenge you to view it NOT as a huge, messy chore of doom… but instead as free treasure! That’s right: treasure! These leaves and nuts can help you accomplish some pretty amazing (and delicious) things! Check it out:
What to do with the Non-leaves:
Is that a Troll house in the middle?
Acorns
Let’s keep this straight and to the point: Acorns are edible… for humans! They do not trigger nut allergies, and they’re full of nut-rition (get it?)
Right this moment I have a bucket of hundreds of them soaking in my kitchen. When you soak collected acorns (shell and all) in water, the ones that sink are good for planting/eating. The “floaters” often have gone bad or have Acorn Weevil bugs in them. See the acorn above with the hole in the middle… that’s a weevil house!
This is a real photo of an Acorn Weevil… surprisingly cute!
Acorns try to protect themselves from being eaten with Tannins… basically they’re pretty bitter. So, here’s how you solve that problem to start munching like the chipmunks do. Basically, after removing the shells, you soak the yellow insides and dump the water. White Oak acorns are generally less bitter and yummier than Red Oak ones. White Oaks can be distinguished two ways: the nuts are typically bigger, and the leaves are rounded. Red Oaks typically have more jagged and pointier leaves. Many White Oak acorns can be soaked for only one night to be good. Red Oak acorns can take a week!
So once you’ve soaked your acorns, now what? Well, you can simply roast them like Pumpkin seeds, or there’s a few other ideas as well. I personally am gonna try Acorn pancakes!
(Quick sidenote: have you SEEN what this artist does with acorns?! So fun!)
2. Another Edible Nut
Another delicious nut: Hickory! These do trigger nut allergies if you got ‘em.
The inner “meat” of Hickory nuts is delicious raw but takes a lot of cracking and scraping to get it all out!
IMPORTANT NOTE: Do thorough research before consuming any wild food outdoors! I highly recommend the Seek App by iNaturalist
3. Pinecones etc.
Gobble gobble!
Acorns and leaves aren’t the only nature treasures falling from trees this time of year! Here’s some great ideas:
25 Pinecone crafts
Fall Nature crafts
Back to the Leaves:
Here’s last year’s blog post about that.
Long-story-short: many beautiful, beneficial animal brothers and sisters depend on fallen leaves to spend the winter in. I’m not talking about rats and cockroaches, I’m talking about animals such as the beautiful Luna Moth (Left) and Mourning Cloak Butterfly (Right):
Here’s a fun little song I wrote about that!
Oh, and one last thing!
Here’s the 2023 Fall Foliage Forecast for Ohio, which means when you can likely expect to see the peak Fall colors:
My favorite places to peek the peak:
Glen Echo in Columbus
Indian Run Falls in Dublin
Highbanks Metro Park in Lewis Center
Glacier Ridge Metro Park in Plain City
Rising Park in Lancaster
Get out, enjoy those leaves… and remember: when leaves and acorns are coming down… the sky isn’t falling… treasures are!
