A few days ago VEG’s Dan happened across an oak tree (near Wesley Hill Markets, Castlemaine, VIC) with the biggest acorns he has ever seen.  Here they are. 

Because we reckon acorns are part of the key to the future of sustainable chook, pig, and possibly even human food, we think it is important to start assembling living libraries of oaks with useful acorns.  One useful property is size, another is productivity (how many acorns), another is low-tannin or ‘sweetness.’  Now we are not quite at the stage of processing and nibbling on these things ourselves, as the North American Indians regularly did, but we have started trialing them as chook food.  As of right now, we are officially launching VEG’s Let’s Find the Biggest Acorn in Australia competition. Using a 50-cent piece as the reference, send us a photo of what you got.  Who ever sends through a photo of the largest acorn along with info of its whereabouts (and ideally willingness to mail us a cutting in winter we can graft onto oaks in Melbourne) wins, and we will send you a wonderful prize pack including a copy of the latest chook mag, the upcoming city permaculture three mag and some other cool stuff we haven’t even thought of yet. Go for it, fellow acorn foragers, and may the biggest acorn win!  We will assess the results in two months from today and announce the winner.