Have you ever had a chocolate chip cookie made with Acorn
Flour? Well neither did we until last Saturday when we had the Nature
Experienship on “Wild Edibles” with Tom Smith. There were a lot of things that
we learned over the course of the class. First we had a chance to learn about
some great sources for discovering what plants we can eat. Dr. Smith told us
about some of his experiences looking for wild edibles in various parts of the
country and how to get fresh maple syrup out of the maple trees that are found
in Utah. By the way, did you realize that the Box Elder tree is a type of
maple? We explored the wilds of BYU campus which provided a lot of great
opportunities to see what native plants we could sample in Utah. We even
stopped for a few minutes under one of BYU’s many oak trees to gather acorns.
After our exploration of campus we got to sample some of the many foods that can
be made with Utah’s wild plants. We had Oregon Grape Jelly, Real Maple Syrup,
and we even made chocolate chip cookies using four made from acorns and for the
nuts we used pine nuts. In the end we had a great time exploring all of the
possibilities that Utah’s wild plants can provide for a great meal.
Brendon, museum educator
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