Acorn mash…check, bow and arrow…check, and kids, kids, and more kids…check. And kids ground their own acorn mash at the first ever Acorn Harvest Festival on Nov. 8 at Lakeside’s Louis A. Stelzer County Park.
Park Ranger Alex Gilbert said he conceived of the idea for an acorn harvest festival six months ago.
Four stations at the event centered on teaching about acorn grinding, archaeology, native plants and Kumeyaay tools. Other areas offered making bead bracelets and making pinch pots.
Acorn mash…check, bow and arrow…check, and kids, kids, and more kids…check. And kids ground their own acorn mash at the first ever Acorn Harvest Festival on Nov. 8 at Lakeside’s Louis A. Stelzer County Park.
Park Ranger Alex Gilbert said he conceived of the idea for an acorn harvest festival six months ago.
Four stations at the event centered on teaching about acorn grinding, archaeology, native plants and Kumeyaay tools. Other areas offered making bead bracelets and making pinch pots.
Native American story teller Running Grunion, (Abel Silvas), was on hand to teach and entertain the young and old attendees, numbering around 100, with his stories.
Phil Lambert from Lakeside’s Silverwood Wildlife Sanctuary showed off bows, arrows, and quivers used by the Kuymeyaay tribes of days gone by. Barona tribal members added ideas and artifacts to lend authenticity to Lambert’s display.
While the acorn harvest festivals were a common annual event to Kumeyaay residents of long ago Park Ranger Alex Gilbert was the force to bring this festival to the forefront in many years.
Acorns are processed in five steps—gathering, cracking and shelling, grinding, leaching, and eating. Gilbert pointed out that the parks’ coastal live oak trees would have provided many of the acorns used by the Kumeyaay Indians as well.
Supervising Park Ranger Kyle Icke oversaw the event and had available flyers the rangers handed out one of which had naturalist John Muir’s assessment of acorn cakes as “the most compact and strength giving food” he had ever eaten.
