Departmental Retreat in Cape Cod
This year Harvard's Molecular Biology department graciously allowed me to attend its annual retreat on The Cape (though I'm not technically a member of Molecular Biology), so I got to join my wife for a weekend with lots of science, seafood and lovely scenery/weather in Woods Hole, MA.
[Nice location for 'work,' eh?]
Camping in Acadia
As a (belated) celebration of our anniversary, Meg and I took a camping trip to Acadia National Park in Maine. It's a lovely little park. A nice place to just soak it all in- the sea and the forest and the salt and the changing leaves.
While on the beach, I came across two of the biggest clams I've ever seen. I took them back to camp and cooked them over the campfire. Best shellfish ever!
Harvesting Acorns
We have this little white oak tree in front of our house, and this year it is having a bumper crop of acorns. I happen to know that white oak acorns, being more palatable than those of its siblings, were used by many ancient peoples (including Native Americans) to make a sort of flour. And so, I engaged in a little cultural/historical/culinary experiment!
Step 1: Forage for acorns (we live on a busy enough street that squirrels tend to stay away, thus I had little competition in my foraging).
Step 2: Crack acorns. I do not own a nutcracker, but I own a lobster cracker.
Step 3: Chop the seeds into flour.
Step 4: Leech out water-soluble tannins (bitter [and bad for the kidneys]) by soaking in water.
Step 5: Dry out in the oven
Step 6: Bake! I mixed in a bit of wheat flour and made some surprisingly delicious honey-acorn pancakes:
Would I do it again? Despite the degree of difficulty (mostly in the cracking of the nuts), I think I would! Those pancakes were most delicious.
