At the end of 2024 I took out all the grass and weeds in my yard, put about a foot of soil over it, and seeded it with a mix of flowers, grasses, and perennials (also planted some things).

Here are some shots from today - the 2nd spring for this garden.

In the pictures: (1) chick lupine, gillia tricolor, manzanita (2) wide shot includes gillias, buckwheat, blue wildrye, brome (3)blow wives, baby blue eyes (4) sky lupine (5) california phacelia

Neighbors probably think I’m nuts 🤷‍♂️

Hello hello I've been yapping about working with more California native edibles but I can't quite yet because I'm in the MIDWEST!! I bought some acorn starch from a Korean market though since I'm not about to wait until I'm back in California to start recipe testing!!

I hope the following ideas spark some inspiration!

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ACORN JELLY

I kept things pretty traditional for starters with a classic Korean dish dotori-muk or acorn jelly. I'm sure for the acorn curious out there you've stumbled upon this dish. The recipe for the jelly is simple: 100g acorn starch and 3.75 cups of water (recipe from: NamiEats).

In a pot you'll add your starch and mix in your water. I find water into starch keeps things from getting too lumpy. turn your heat up to medium/medium-high and whisk until your jelly thickens and goes from opaque to translucent. this is how you know your starches are hydrated and cooked! Pour out into a pan and let it cook before slicing. The acorn jelly is typically served with a sauce of gochugaru, green onions and some other goodies (which I didn't make this time) but I have served it with a pecan salsa macha before and that was pretty fucking tasty lemme tell you.

The texture is soft but firm like jello-o but softer. The taste is bitter from the tannins but not so off putting. My partner loves an unsweetened iced tea and didn't find the jelly bitter or off putting.

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ACORN ... JAM?

I'm not sure what to call this quite yet but it started off as a Turkish delight. I figured Hey! Turkish delights are made from starch! why not? The first attempt was a failure. Recipes are hard. SECOND ATTEMPT THOUGH! Not as big of a failure. Definitely not a Turkish delight. I pulled it off the heat too soon. You're essentially thickening a syrup with a starch and heating it to soft ball stage and I did not wait to get to soft ball stage. Hot sugar is scary. I was pleasantly surprised to find a spreadable little ... jam? I guess I'm calling it a jam. It reminded me a bit of black walnut jam if that means anything to anyone. I want to make this jam again but this time with milk instead of water as my liquid. I think I can make an acorn dulce de leche which means acorn alfajores!!! STAY TUNED!

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ACORN + OSMANTHUS ATOLÉ

I'll admkt I felt a little defeated with the Turkish delight not setting. I was determined to use this jam for something though! A user on a previous post had mentioned acorn atolé and I thought I'd try. I heated up some milk, steeped some osmanthus I had lying around and, once heated, stirred in a big spoonful of the jam. I kept it around medium/medium-high heat until I was happy with the thickness. I poured my partner and I a mug and lemme tell yall .... this was pleasant af. The mouth feel was luxurious and the osmanthus was beautiful. The jam provided a nice sweetness that was balanced out by the more bitter tannins. 10/10 will be making again.

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AND THERE YOU GO!! I'm excited to keep experimenting with this starch and eventually make my own from scratch. Like I mentioned I think an acorn dulce de leche is in store along with: acorn pastry cream, pão de queijo, and a rice paper type batter thing ya feel?

Anyway I'm going nuts thinking about acorns BYE!

Planted in July 2025. We have 4 others lined up in the same area— same light conditions and watering schedule and all others look super healthy (second pic for reference). No bugs that I can see. Any ideas/advice?