69. Making Acorn Bread

Elizabeth Grinnell

[The following account is reprinted from The Youth's Comanion, Vol.
66-67, p. 559, Nov. 2, 1893. It is a full circumstantial description of
acorn preparation among the Southern Sierra Miwok of Yosemite Valley.

The reader may wish to compare this account with two by C. Hart Merriam
(Studies of California Indianns, Univ. Calif. Press, 1955, pp. 50-51,

6I-7373 No more general studies of the same subject have been written
by C. Hart Merriam (I"The Acorn as a Possibly Neglected Source of Food,"
National Geographic Magazine, Vol. 34, pp. 129-138, 1918) and E. W.

G}ifford (itCalifornian Balanophagy" in Essays in Anthropology Presented
to A. L. Kroeber, Univ. Calif. Press, I936, p   t W7-98)I,

While visiting the Yosemite Valley of California not long ago we

camped a hundred feet from the Merced River, with an Indian village be-
tween us and Sentinel Rock. The village huts were of boughs and brush,
constructed much like the huts of the Penobscot Indians as I saw them
many years ago. The villagers are a band of the Digger Indians, whose

right in the valley no one questions. They are indeed a feature of the
valley itself, and are protected, like the game.

In customs they are much as they always have been, but their ward-

robe is replenished from time to time by the discarded garments of tour-
ists, so that in this particular they are quite civilized, or would be

if they wore more clothing. In summer they are willing to part with the
greater portion, and so escape the burdens of fashion.

They subsist on the abundant trout of the Merced, manzanita berries.,
and the never-failing acorn. The acorns are stored in great baskets or
bins, built around strong poles about fifteen feet in length.

The pole is firmly planted in the ground; then armfuls of cured

rushes are brought, and the bin begun three feet from the earth. This
space between the ground and the bin is for safety against rats and

squirrels. From the point of begiming the basket rounds outward until

it becomes five feet in diameter, and is then carried to a height of ten
feet or more, where it is left unfinished, with the rushes projecting
some distance above the last web.

When acorns ripen, they are spread in the sun to cure for a few days,
and then poured into the granaries. When a bin is full, the projecting
reeds are brought together over the whole and fastened. More reeds are

adJusted to form a complete watershed, as well as shelter, and the harvest
is garnered.

- 42 -

-About a week after we had pitched our camp we were disturbed early in
the morning by an unusual stir. Wbmen were bustling about. The men went
away to the brush, and after a while returned with loads of wood, dried

leaves and twigs, which they deposited on the river-bank, and then disap-
peared for the day, probably trouting down the stream.

The women opened one of the acorn bins, which would hold perhaps

fifty bushels, took out several baskets full, and carefully covered the

bin. They then squatted on the ground, and the day'swork of bread-makig
began.

Every little acorn was shelled by the teeth of these patient folk.

Each nut received two turnsg or a bite and a twist, and the meat cam out
intact. The strong9 white teeth of these women might well be the envy of
our own people, who dare not even crack a filbert or a peanut between
their brittle grinders.

When the kernels were all out they were roasted on hot stones, re-
moved one at a time with a little stick, and gathered, thus partially

cooked, into baskets.  This roasting took several hours, and was the most
tedious part of the day's labor.

There was no lounging or gossiping, as one might expect who happened
to know something about "*sewing circles" among civilized women.  Every

one was diligent, and there was no visible shirking or selfish preference.

When the roasting was done the acorns were carried to the mills to be
made into meal, -These mills are mortars chiselled true and even in the

solid granite rocks, The acorns were thrown into the mill and reduced to
fineness by the motion of round stones.

As the grinding went on, the coarser meal came to the top.  This was
scoopId off into fine basket sievea, and sifted, the bran to be again

pounded into the mortar. When the whole was of uniform consistency, it
was poured into a great basket and carried down to- the river. Enough

water -was added to it to make a thin batter, which was stirred with wooden
paddles.

On the beach-was silvery sand in abundance, clean and pure. Some of
the women knelt down, and scooped small basins in the sand, heaping up

regular sides for strength, and smoothing out the inside. When-the ba-sins
were finished, tufts of pine-needles were spread over the bottom to pre-
vent the sand from being disturbed. Then the batter was poured in. Im-
mediately the pine tufts rose to the surface and were skimmd off.

The mixture then began to "settle."  When the water had all filtered
into the sand more pine needles were laid in, and more water poured on,
until the process had been repeated three times. The purpose of this

process was to rid the batter of the poisonous, bitter principle of the
acorns, leaving only the nutritious, amber-colored flour,

c 43 -

While this was going on, other women had kindled a fire, and heated
upon it several stones the size of a child's head, tq a white heat.

Then began the separating of the inferior from the superior flour.
There were three grades--the coarser, which was on the surface of the

reservoir; the bottom or leavings which was next to the sand filter; and
between these two, the clean, fine sort.

With the edges of the two hands, the top of the meal was scraped off
into a basket, into which hot water was poured and rapidly stirred. The

agitation caused the meal to separate from the sand, and it was turned off,
leaving the residue of debris in the bottom. This operation, repeated
three times, left a clean, coarse material for Itmush."

Instead of setting the mush into the stove, the stove was put into the
mush. When the big basket was half-full of the acorn flour, several hot

stones were thrown in. The mixture began to boil. Then dexterity, strength
and skill were essential, for the stones must be constantly moved about with
two strong sticks, in the hands of the alert attendant.

How she perspired, leaning low over the hissing, thickening massl The
wkneading"t of light bread by our American housewives on the cool, floured
Icake board" would seem like child's play in comparison. Occasionally a

stone, exhausted of its heat, was lifted out by the two sticks and replaced
by a hotter one.

At the woman's side was a basket of cold water, into which she dipped
her hand while she poised a stone against the edge of the mush pot, and
deftly, with two strokes, divested it of the batter. She determined the

exact moment when the mush was "doneR by its adhesiveness. When it dropped
from the stones of itself, leaving them bare and clean, it was properly
cooked.

The bushel basket of boiling porridge was then lifted to the back of
a woman in waiting, where it was secured by a cloth which encircled its

brim and passed around the forehead of the carrier. She bore it to camp,
ready for succeeding breakfasts.

It is eaten without salt or sugar, and washed down with cold water.
these Indians drink neither beer nor coffee.

Now the first layer of meal in the filtering reservoir has been dis-
posed of, and we hasten to the next or middle portion. This was scooped
out by the hooked fingers, placed in a basket, and set to one side.

There was now nothing left in the basin but the lining coat of flour.
This was peeled off -with its adhering sand, and treated to several gener-

ous washings and drainings, similar to the first batch. When it was ready

for the porridge pot, there was supposed to be no trace of grit in the whole
basket. This was cooked by hot stones as was the first, and sent to camp as
second quality.

- 44 -

All this has been but incidental to the making of the real bread.

That best, Aiddle meal, which had been set to one side in a basket, was

then made into al thicker batter than for mush, and was consequently harder
to stir.  It was cooked for a long time9 and with great labor in agitating
the hot stones.

When the bread was ready to be made into loaves, the women took off a
portion of their clothes and waded a little way into the river, where Was
an eddy, but no current, Here, with the same paddles which had stirred the
mush, they scooped a hole in the bottom sand under water, and banked up
the sides just high enough to allow the play of the eddy over the brim.

Small baskets were then filled with the boiling dough and taken to

the pool, where they were plunged again and again into the cold water. A
little shaking from side to side, as the baskets came dripping to the sur-
face, together with the rapid cooling, caused the bread to loosen from the
baskets in free, ball-like masses.

At the right minute the baskets were inverted, and the "tloaves"t

slipped but into the pool, where they could bob about without the least
danger of floating down stream.

There were a great many of these loaves, each resembling in appear-
ance and texture a rubber ball, and they had about the same taste to my

palate. They were of the size of a baker's ten-cent loaf, hard and heavy,
of a light amber color. After they had remained in the river two or three
hours they were perfectly cold, and ready to "keep."

By this time the sun was setting and the men could be seen coming
home to supper. The loaves were fished out of the water and carried to

the camps in baskets, where they were deposited on the summer- scaffoldings
about the huts, to be drawn upon as needed, until the next baking-day
should come around in about three weeks,

The Indians of this coast seem to gain from their acorn bread some-

thing of the strength and longevity of the oak, for they are said to attain
the greatest age of any known people. It is said that many live beyond the
term of one hundred years, while some attain the great age of one hundred
and forty years, falling at last to the ground like an oak leaf, withered
and dry,