Acorns

[ProperVexed]

I have a garden bordered on one side by 5 large old oak trees. Not surprisingly I have acorns. I have many, many acorns already and autumn proper has not yet started.
What can I do with them?
Can I put them on the compost heap?
Should I buy or borrow a pig?
Any advice will be gratefully received!

You can eat them, but it's a faffy old process and they're probably horrid.

Do you have a pig sanctuary near you? Oddly, I do and I've donated old apples there before.

Er, put them on freecycle?

I think they'd compost eventually but you'd also risk them taking ages and/or getting loads more baby oak trees. Do you have garden waste collection?

Pile them into a far corner and leave them for the wildlife?

Throw them in areas of rough ground they might grow ( but where I live the small saplings get eaten by wildlife- voles rabbits, deer, but a couple that I protected have grown.)

I put them in the hedges on the park for the wildlife.

I'd try composting a bunch and see how it turns out. Seems to me they are likely to be good nutrition, just not sure how long they would take to break down.

Thanks all. I have enough to try everything you have suggested! However, eating them, or making coffee, seems a faff too far!

Huge oak tree just the other side of one of my fences. My garden gets covered by acorns. I tend to sweep up the ones on my decking and put them in the garden waste bin. I leave the ones on the lawn/beds for wildlife. But I do keep an eye out for ones taking root and try to deal with them asap - they can be a bit tough t9 remove and my garden cannot handle an oak tree taking root randomly!

Plant them and sell the trees! Or sell the acorns for other to grow. We need trees :D

Is your Council currently tree planting (ours is trying to plant 5 million)? They might like a donation of acorns.

However, eating them, or making coffee, seems a faff too far!

It’s quite easy but don’t bother making them into “coffee”. I tried that during the coffee shortage in the 1970s.

It tastes horrible.

i use the nice acorns for decorating. i have a large fat candle on a brass plate and use seasonal things from the garden to decorate around the candle.. dried flowers, acorn, fircones, rosemary sprigs.. anything that doesn’t require water really.

My mother made me a snake by stringing together a huge number of acorn cups, on inside the other, with an acorn as head. I still have it somewhere, it’s about 60 years old.