Treebeard`s Photos

Here is a small harvest of the dry nuts inside the fruit of the native California Bay (Umbellularia californica) trees in the Lauraceae plant family growing in the canyon. Gotta leave some for the squirrels! (San Marcos Pass, 24 November 2009)

Have you ever accidentally eaten a "bay leaf" in a stew? *Yuck* Our native bay trees are like that only more so - and the fruit are even more so than the leaves. The secret is to roast the nuts. I'll try it and report back here. It's been 30 years since I prepared the nuts for the table, and it's time to refresh my memory!

I found a video on how to prepare bay nuts on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igb8UD-TtC4

I have a stumper about such forgotten foods. It mentions acorns, but it could just as well be about bay nuts:

"Did you notice that it's the peak of acorn harvest time here in central California? The birds know! It's remarkable that these same acorns that clutter our patios were once the "staff of life" for the Chumash Native Americans in these parts. What other forgotten foods can you find, either local or global? I'm most interested in those unknown foods that are not only edible and delicious, but were once the staple foods that fed whole civilizations, even though the harvest is now ignored and forgotten. Raw acorns taste bitter, so the challenge is to prepare something delicious using acorns for your Thanksgiving feast!"

Read my stumper (and answer) at:
http://www.rain.org/~mkummel/stumpers/22nov02.html

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