Beechnuts A Great Wild Survival Food
Beechnuts are truly a great wild food source. When the American Beech trees are producing you need to be quick because the beechnuts are going to go quick as many wild animals also love beechnuts. Indians would gather the small nuts and pound them after roasting into flour, they are also eaten whole.
Beech trees have a very smooth tight light colored bark The tree grows in eastern hardwood forest. Here are some tips on identifying an American Beech tree.
1. Alternately arranged leaves.
2. Tight bark gray bark.
3. Buds are about an inch long!
4. Two or Three small sharply-angled nuts are found inside a soft-spined, four-lobed husk.
American beech trees are slow growing and probably not something you would plant to use as a food source. They can take up to 40 years to begin producing seeds! That is a long wait. There is another species of beech that grow in the western US and also species that grows in Europe and Asia. These other species are similar and can probably be used in much the same way.
Beechnuts are harvested in the fall. The best way to harvest beechnuts is to pick them off the trees before they start to fall. Separation from the leaf litter with a blanket is doable but is a lot of work.
Beech trees have a very smooth tight light colored bark The tree grows in eastern hardwood forest. Here are some tips on identifying an American Beech tree.
1. Alternately arranged leaves.
2. Tight bark gray bark.
3. Buds are about an inch long!
4. Two or Three small sharply-angled nuts are found inside a soft-spined, four-lobed husk.
American beech trees are slow growing and probably not something you would plant to use as a food source. They can take up to 40 years to begin producing seeds! That is a long wait. There is another species of beech that grow in the western US and also species that grows in Europe and Asia. These other species are similar and can probably be used in much the same way.
Beechnuts are harvested in the fall. The best way to harvest beechnuts is to pick them off the trees before they start to fall. Separation from the leaf litter with a blanket is doable but is a lot of work.
