Kiwifruit
Kiwifruit or Chinese gooseberry is the name given to the edible berries of several species of woody vines in the genus Actinidia. The most common group of kiwifruit is oval, about the size of a large hens egg. It has a fibrous, dull greenish-brown skin and bright green or golden flesh with rows of tiny, the fruit has a soft texture and a sweet but unique flavor. It is a crop in several countries, such as Italy, New Zealand, Greece. Early varieties were described in a 1904 nurserymans catalogue as having. edible fruits the size of walnuts, as per Indian language Hindi Kiwifruit is termed as Lalit. In 1962, New Zealand growers began calling it kiwifruit when exporting, the word kiwifruit and shortened kiwi has been used since around 1966 when the fruit was first imported from New Zealand to the United States. Kiwifruit has since become a name for all commercially grown fruit from the genus Actinidia. In New Zealand, the word kiwi is seldom used to refer to the fruit. Kiwifruit is native to north-central and eastern China, cultivation of the fuzzy kiwifruit spread from China in the early 20th century to New Zealand, where the first commercial plantings occurred.
Although kiwifruit is a fruit of China, until recently, China was not a major producing country of kiwifruit. The fruit became popular with American servicemen stationed in New Zealand during World War II and exported to California using the names Chinese gooseberry and melonette. In 1962, New Zealand growers began calling it kiwifruit to give it more market appeal, in Italy, kiwifruit cultivation began in 1970, growing to rank second in production behind China in 2014. The genus Actinidia contains around 60 species, though most kiwifruit are easily recognized as kiwifruit their fruit is quite variable. The skin of the fruit varies in size, hairiness, the flesh varies in color, juiciness and taste. Some fruits are unpalatable while others taste considerably better than the majority of the commercial varieties, the most common kiwifruit is the fuzzy kiwifruit, from the species A. deliciosa. Other species that are eaten include golden kiwifruit, Chinese egg gooseberry, baby kiwifruit, Arctic kiwifruit, red kiwifruit, silver vine.
Almost all kiwifruit sold belong to a few cultivars of fuzzy kiwi, Hayward and they have a fuzzy, dull-brown skin, and bright-green flesh. The familiar cultivar Hayward was developed by Hayward Wright in Avondale and it was initially grown in domestic gardens, but commercial planting began in the 1940s
Blackberry
The taxonomy of the blackberries has historically been confused because of hybridization and apomixis, so that species have often been grouped together and called species aggregates. For example, the entire subgenus Rubus has been called the Rubus fruticosus aggregate, what distinguishes the blackberry from its raspberry relatives is whether or not the torus picks with the fruit. When picking a blackberry fruit, the torus does stay with the fruit, with a raspberry, the torus remains on the plant, leaving a hollow core in the raspberry fruit. In the western US, the term caneberry is used to refer to blackberries and raspberries as a rather than the term bramble. The usually black fruit is not a berry in the sense of the word. Botanically it is termed an aggregate fruit, composed of small drupelets, blackberries are perennial plants which typically bear biennial stems from the perennial root system. In its second year, the cane becomes a floricane and the stem does not grow longer, first- and second-year shoots usually have numerous short-curved, very sharp prickles that are often erroneously called thorns.
These prickles can tear through denim with ease and make the plant very difficult to navigate around, recently the University of Arkansas has developed primocane fruiting blackberries that grow and flower on first-year growth much as the primocane-fruiting red raspberries do. Unmanaged mature plants form a tangle of dense arching stems, the branches rooting from the tip on many species when they reach the ground. Vigorous and growing rapidly in woods, scrub and hedgerows, blackberry shrubs tolerate poor soils, readily colonizing wasteland, the flowers are produced in late spring and early summer on short racemes on the tips of the flowering laterals. Each flower is about 2–3 cm in diameter with five white or pale pink petals, the drupelets only develop around ovules that are fertilized by the male gamete from a pollen grain. The most likely cause of undeveloped ovules is inadequate pollinator visits, incomplete drupelet development can be a symptom of exhausted reserves in the plants roots or infection with a virus such as raspberry bushy dwarf virus.
Blackberry leaves are food for caterpillars, some grazing mammals. Caterpillars of the concealer moth Alabonia geoffrella have been found feeding inside dead blackberry shoots, when mature, the berries are eaten and their seeds dispersed by several mammals, such as the red fox and the Eurasian badger, as well as by small birds. Blackberries grow wild throughout most of Europe and they are an important element in the ecology of many countries, and harvesting the berries is a popular pastime. However, the plants are considered a weed, sending down roots from branches that touch the ground. Blackberry fruits are red before they are ripe, leading to an old expression that blackberries are red when theyre green, in various parts of the United States, wild blackberries are sometimes called black-caps, a term more commonly used for black raspberries, Rubus occidentalis. American cultivated blackberries are notable for their significant contents of dietary fiber, vitamin C, a 100 gram serving of raw blackberries supplies 43 calories and 5 grams of dietary fiber or 25% of the recommended Daily Value
Pottery
Pottery is the craft of making ceramic material into pots or potterywares using mud. Major types of potterywares include earthenware and porcelain, the place where such wares are made by a potter is called a pottery. Early Neolithic pottery have found in places such as Jomon Japan. A clay body can be decorated before or after firing, prior to shaping processes. Kneading helps to ensure an even moisture content throughout the body, air trapped within the clay body needs to be removed. This is called de-airing and can be accomplished either by a called a vacuum pug or manually by wedging. Wedging can produce an even moisture content. Once a clay body has been kneaded and de-aired or wedged, after shaping, it is dried and fired. Clay ware takes on varying physical characteristics during the making of pottery, at sufficient moisture content, bodies at this stage are in their most plastic form. Leather-hard refers to a body that has been dried partially. At this stage the clay object has approximately 15% moisture content, clay bodies at this stage are very firm and only slightly pliable.
Trimming and handle attachment often occurs at the leather-hard state, bone-dry refers to clay bodies when they reach a moisture content at or near 0%. It is now ready to be bisque fired, bisque refers to the clay after the object is shaped to the desired form and fired in the kiln for the first time, known as bisque fired or biscuit fired. This firing changes the body in several ways. Mineral components of the body will undergo chemical changes that will change the colour of the clay. Glaze fired is the stage of some pottery making. A glaze may be applied to the form and the object can be decorated in several ways. After this the object is glazed fired, which causes the material to melt
Melon
A melon is any of various plants of the family Cucurbitaceae with sweet edible, fleshy fruit. The word melon can refer to either the plant or specifically to the fruit, botanically, a melon is a kind of berry, specifically a pepo. The word melon derives from Latin melopepo, which is the latinization of the Greek μηλοπέπων, meaning melon, itself a compound of μῆλον, apple and πέπων, many different cultivars have been produced, particularly of muskmelons. Melons originated in Africa and southwest Asia, but they began to appear in Europe toward the end of the Roman Empire. Melons were among the earliest plants to be domesticated in both the Old and New Worlds, early European settlers in the New World are recorded as growing honeydew and casaba melons as early as the 1600s. Organizations like Native Seeds/SEARCH have made an effort to collect and preserve these, winter melon is the only member of the genus Benincasa. The mature winter melon is a vegetable that is widely used in Asia and India. The immature melons are used as a culinary fruit, egusi is a wild melon, similar in appearance to the watermelon.
The flesh is inedible, but the seeds are a food source in Africa. Other species that have the same role, and that are called egusi include Cucumeropsis mannii. Watermelon originated in Africa, where evidence indicates that it has been cultivated for over 4,000 years and it is a popular summer fruit in all parts of the world. Melons in genus Cucumis are culinary fruits, and include the majority of culinary melons, all but a handful of culinary melon varieties belong to the species Cucumis melo L. Horned melon, a traditional food plant in Africa with distinctive spikes. Now grown in California, Chile and New Zealand as well, muskmelon C. melo cantalupensis, with skin that is rough and warty, not netted. The European cantaloupe, with lightly ribbed, pale skin, was domesticated in the 18th century, in Cantalupo in Sabina, Italy. Varieties include the French Charentais and the Burpee Seeds hybrid Netted Gem, the Yubari King is a highly prized Japanese cantaloupe cultivar. The Persian melon resemble a large cantaloupe with a darker green rind, C.
melo inodorus, casabas and Asian melons Argos, a large, with orange wrinkled skin, orange flesh, strong aroma. A characteristic is its pointed ends, growing in some areas of Greece, from which it was named. Canary melon, a large, bright-yellow melon with a green to white inner flesh
Euryale ferox
Euryale ferox is the only extant species in the genus Euryale. It is a flowering plant classified in the lily family, Nymphaeaceae. Unlike other water lilies, the grains of Euryale have three nuclei. Euryale is a plant native to eastern Asia, and is found from India- found in Bihar. It grows in water, producing bright purple flowers, the leaves are large and round, often more than a meter across, with a leaf stalk attached in the center of the lower surface. The underside of the leaf is purplish, while the surface is green. The leaves have a texture, although the stems, flowers. In India, Euryale normally grows in ponds, wetlands etc, recently the Indian Council of Agricultural Research have developed a technique for the field cultivation of Euryale. The plant produces starchy white seeds that are edible, the plant is cultivated for its seeds in lowland ponds in India and Japan. The Chinese have cultivated the plant for over 3000 years, more than 96,000 hectares of Bihar, were set aside for cultivation of Euryale in 1990-1991.
The plant grows best in locations with hot, dry summers, seeds are collected in the late summer and early autumn, and may be eaten raw or cooked. In India, in the northern and western parts of the country, Euryale ferox seeds are roasted or fried. These are eaten, often with a sprinkling of oil, makhhaan along with Paan and Maachch is symbolic to Maithil culture. The earliest recorded use of E. ferox was found in Gesher Benot Yaaqov, the seeds of foxnut are used in ayurvedic preparations. In Chinese, the plant is called qiàn shí and its edible seeds are used in traditional Chinese medicine, where they are often cooked in soups along with other ingredients. The name Euryale comes from the mythical Greek Gorgon by the same name, the Soviet Union issued a postage stamp featuring this species. Euryale ferox page Fox nut page Euryale seed page Gordon Euryale page Information regarding possibly health benefits of Euryale ferox seeds
Harpoon
A harpoon is a long spear-like instrument used in fishing, whaling and other marine hunting to catch fish or large marine mammals such as whales. A harpoon can be used as a weapon, in the 1990s Zaire, harpoon points, known as the Semliki harpoons or the Katanda harpoons, were found in the Katanda region. As the earliest known harpoons, these weapons were made and used 90,000 years ago, later, in Japan, spearfishing with poles became widespread in palaeolithic times, especially during the Solutrean and Magdalenian periods. Cosquer Cave in Southern France contains cave art over 16,000 years old, there are references to harpoons in ancient literature, though, in most cases, the descriptions do not go into detail. An early example from the Bible in Job 41,7, the Greek historian Polybius, in his Histories, describes hunting for swordfish by using a harpoon with a barbed and detachable head. Copper harpoons were known to the seafaring Harappans well into antiquity, early hunters in India include the Mincopie people, aboriginal inhabitants of Indias Andaman and Nicobar islands, who have used harpoons with long cords for fishing since early times.
The two flue harpoon was the weapon used in whaling around the world, but it cut through the blubber when under stress. In the Arctic, the people used the more advanced toggling harpoon design. In the early 19th century the one flue harpoon was introduced, in the mid-19th century, the toggling harpoon was adapted by Lewis Temple, using iron. The Temple toggle was widely used, and quickly came to dominate whaling and he describes another device that was at times a necessary addition to harpoons, All whale-boats carry certain curious contrivances, originally invented by the Nantucket Indians, called druggs. It is chiefly among gallied whales that this drugg is used, for then, more whales are close round you than you can possibly chase at one time. But sperm whales are not every day encountered, while you may, and if you cannot kill them all at once, you must wing them, so that they can be afterwards killed at your leisure. Hence it is that at times like these the drugg comes into requisition, the first use of explosives in the hunting of whales was made by the British South Sea Company in 1737, after some years of declining catches. A large fleet was sent, armed with cannon-fired harpoons, although the weaponry was successful in killing the whales, most of the catch sank before being retrieved.
William Congreve, a British inventor who invented some of the first rockets for military use, the shell was designed to explode on contact and impale the whale with the harpoon. The weapon was in turn attached by a line to the boat, expeditions were sent out to try this new technology, many whales were killed, but most of them sank. A notable user of these early explosive harpoons was the American Thomas Welcome Roys in 1865, a slump in oil prices after the American Civil War forced their endeavor into bankruptcy in 1867. Norwegian, Svend Foyn, studied the American method in Iceland, another early version of the explosive harpoon was designed by Jacob Nicolai Walsøe, a Norwegian painter and inventor
Neolithic
It ended when metal tools became widespread. The Neolithic is a progression of behavioral and cultural characteristics and changes, including the use of wild and domestic crops, the beginning of the Neolithic culture is considered to be in the Levant about 10, 200–8800 BC. It developed directly from the Epipaleolithic Natufian culture in the region, whose people pioneered the use of wild cereals, which evolved into true farming. The Natufian period was between 12,000 and 10,200 BC, and the so-called proto-Neolithic is now included in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic between 10,200 and 8800 BC. By 10, 200–8800 BC, farming communities arose in the Levant and spread to Asia Minor, North Africa, Mesopotamia is the site of the earliest developments of the Neolithic Revolution from around 10,000 BC. Early Neolithic farming was limited to a range of plants, both wild and domesticated, which included einkorn wheat and spelt, and the keeping of dogs, sheep. By about 6900–6400 BC, it included domesticated cattle and pigs, the establishment of permanently or seasonally inhabited settlements, not all of these cultural elements characteristic of the Neolithic appeared everywhere in the same order, the earliest farming societies in the Near East did not use pottery.
Early Japanese societies and other East Asian cultures used pottery before developing agriculture, unlike the Paleolithic, when more than one human species existed, only one human species reached the Neolithic. The term Neolithic derives from the Greek νέος néos, new and λίθος líthos, the term was invented by Sir John Lubbock in 1865 as a refinement of the three-age system. In the Middle East, cultures identified as Neolithic began appearing in the 10th millennium BC, early development occurred in the Levant and from there spread eastwards and westwards. Neolithic cultures are attested in southeastern Anatolia and northern Mesopotamia by around 8000 BC. The total excavated area is more than 1,200 square yards, the Neolithic 1 period began roughly 10,000 years ago in the Levant. A temple area in southeastern Turkey at Göbekli Tepe dated around 9500 BC may be regarded as the beginning of the period. This site was developed by nomadic tribes, evidenced by the lack of permanent housing in the vicinity.
At least seven stone circles, covering 25 acres, contain limestone pillars carved with animals, Stone tools were used by perhaps as many as hundreds of people to create the pillars, which might have supported roofs. Other early PPNA sites dating to around 9500–9000 BC have been found in Jericho, Gilgal in the Jordan Valley, the start of Neolithic 1 overlaps the Tahunian and Heavy Neolithic periods to some degree. The major advance of Neolithic 1 was true farming, in the proto-Neolithic Natufian cultures, wild cereals were harvested, and perhaps early seed selection and re-seeding occurred. The grain was ground into flour, emmer wheat was domesticated, and animals were herded and domesticated
Ningbo
Ningbo, formerly written Ningpo, is a sub-provincial city in northeast Zhejiang province in China. It comprises the districts of Ningbo proper, three satellite cities, and a number of rural counties including islands in Hangzhou Bay and the East China Sea. Its port, spread across locations, is among the busiest in the world. As of the 2010 census, the entire administrated area had a population of 7.6 million, with 3.5 million in the six urban districts of Ningbo proper. To the north, Hangzhou Bay separates Ningbo from Shanghai, to the east lies Zhoushan in the East China Sea, on the west and south, Ningbo borders Shaoxing, the first character in the citys name ning means serene, while its second character bo translates to waves. The city is abbreviated Yǒng, after the Yong Hill, a prominent coastal hill near the city, the character ming was composed by two parts, representing two lakes inside the city wall, Sun Lake and Moon Lake. As a city with giant port, culture of Ningbo influences many countries near it, Ningbo is one of Chinas oldest cities, with a history dating to the Hemudu culture in 4800 BC.
Since the Tang dynasty Ningbo was an important commercial port, arab traders lived in Ningbo during the Song dynasty when it was known as Mingzhou, as the ocean-going trade passages took precedence over land trade during this time. Another name for Mingzhou/Ningbo was Siming and it was a well known center of ocean-going commerce with the foreign world. These merchants did not intermingle with native Chinese, practicing their own customs and religion and they did not try to proselytize Islam to Chinese. Jews lived in Ningbo, as evidenced by the fact that, after a flood destroyed Torah scrolls in Kaifeng. The city of Ningbo was known in Europe for a time under the name of Liampó. This is the spelling used e. g. in the standard Portuguese history, João de Barross Décadas da Ásia. The spelling Liampó is attested in the Peregrination by Fernão Mendes Pinto, for the mid-16th-century Portuguese, the nearby promontory, which they called the cape of Liampó, after the nearby illustrious city was the easternmost known point of the mainland Asia.
The Portuguese began trading in Ningbo around 1522, by 1542, the Portuguese had a sizable community in Ningbo. Portuguese activities from their Ningbo base included pillaging and attacking multiple Chinese port cities around Ningbo for plunder and they enslaved people during their raids. The Portuguese were ousted from the Ningbo area in 1548, Ningbo was one of the five Chinese treaty ports opened by the Treaty of Nanjing at the end of the First Opium War between Britain and China. During the war, British forces took possession of the city of Ningbo briefly after storming the fortified town of Zhenhai at the mouth of the Yong River on October 10,1841
Water buffalo
The water buffalo or domestic Asian water buffalo is a large bovid originating in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and China. Today, it is found in Europe, South America. The wild water buffalo native to Southeast Asia is considered a different species, Water buffalo were traded from the Indus Valley Civilisation to Mesopotamia, in modern Iraq,2500 BC by the Meluhhas. The seal of a scribe employed by an Akkadian king shows the sacrifice of water buffalo, at least 130 million domestic water buffalo exist, and more people depend on them than on any other domestic animal. They are especially suitable for tilling rice fields, and their milk is richer in fat, the large feral population of northern Australia became established in the late 19th century, and smaller feral herds are in New Guinea and northeastern Argentina. Feral herds are present in New Britain, New Ireland, Irian Jaya, Papua New Guinea, Guyana, Brazil. The skin of buffalo is black, but some specimens may have dark. Swamp buffalo have a skin at birth, but become slate blue later.
Albinoids are present in some populations, River buffalo have comparatively longer faces, smaller girths, and bigger limbs than swamp buffalo. Their dorsal ridges extend further back and taper off more gradually and their horns grow downward and backward, curve upward in a spiral. Swamp buffalo are heavy-bodied and stockily built, the body is short, the forehead is flat, the eyes prominent, the face short, and the muzzle wide. The neck is long, and the withers and croup are prominent. A dorsal ridge extends backward and ends abruptly just before the end of the chest and their horns grow outward, and curve in a semicircle, but always remain more or less on the plane of the forehead. The tail is short, reaching only to the hocks, height at withers is 129–133 cm for males, and 120–127 cm for females. They range in weight from 300–550 kg, but weights of over 1,000 kg have been observed, Tedong bonga is a black pied buffalo featuring a unique black and white colouration that is favoured by the Toraja of Sulawesi.
The swamp buffalo has 48 chromosomes, the buffalo has 50 chromosomes. The two types do not readily interbreed, but fertile offspring can occur, buffalo-cattle hybrids have not been observed to occur, but the embryos of such hybrids reach maturity in laboratory experiments, albeit at lower rates than non-hybrids. The rumen of the buffalo has important differences from that of other ruminants
Pig
A pig is any of the animals in the genus Sus, within the Suidae family of even-toed ungulates. Pigs include the domestic pig and its ancestor, the common Eurasian wild boar, along with species, related creatures outside the genus include the peccary, the babirusa. Pigs, like all suids, are native to the Eurasian and African continents, juvenile pigs are known as piglets. Pigs are highly social and intelligent animals, with around 1 billion individuals alive at any time, the domesticated pig is one of the most numerous large mammals on the planet. Pigs are omnivores and can consume a range of food. Pigs can harbour a range of parasites and diseases that can be transmitted to humans, because of the similarities between pigs and humans, pigs are used for human medical research. The Online Etymology Dictionary provides anecdotal evidence as well as linguistic, saying that the term derives probably from Old English *picg, found in compounds, apparently related to Low German bigge, Dutch big. Another Old English word for pig was fearh, related to furh furrow, from PIE *perk- dig and this reflects a widespread IE tendency to name animals from typical attributes or activities.
Synonyms grunter, porker are from sailors and fishermens euphemistic avoidance of uttering the word pig at sea, a superstition perhaps based on the fate of the Gadarene swine and it is entirely likely that the word to call pigs, soo-ie, is similarly derived. A typical pig has a head with a long snout which is strengthened by a special prenasal bone. The snout is used to dig into the soil to find food and is an acute sense organ. There are four hoofed toes on each trotter, with the two larger central toes bearing most of the weight, but the two being used in soft ground. The dental formula of adult pigs is 3.1.4.33.1.4.3, the rear teeth are adapted for crushing. In the male, the teeth form tusks, which grow continuously and are sharpened by constantly being ground against each other. Occasionally, captive mother pigs may savage their own piglets, often if they become severely stressed, some attacks on newborn piglets are non-fatal. Others may cause the death of the piglets and sometimes, the mother may eat the piglets and it is estimated that 50% of piglet fatalities are due to the mother attacking, or unintentionally crushing, the newborn pre-weaned animals.
Scientists have recently discovered that pigs can exhibit a bias and are optimists or pessimests. In a study by the University of Lincoln,36 pigs were tested and they were placed in a room with two food bowls at each end of the room
Lacquer
The term lacquer is used for a number of hard and potentially shiny finishes applied to materials such as wood. These fall into a number of different groups. This dries to a hard and smooth surface layer which is durable, waterproof. Asian lacquer is sometimes painted with pictures, inlaid with shell and other materials, or carved, as well as dusted with gold and given other further decorative treatments. In modern techniques, lacquer means a range of clear or coloured wood finishes that dry by solvent evaporation or a process that produces a hard. The finish can be of any level from ultra matte to high gloss. It is used for paint, which is a paint that typically dries better on a hard. Lacquer is more durable than shellac and these ultimately derive from Sanskrit lākshā, which was used for both the Lac insect and the scarlet resinous secretion it produces that was used as wood finish. Lac resin was once imported in quantity into Europe from India along with Eastern woods. Lacquer sheen is a measurement of the shine for a given lacquer, different manufacturers have their own names and standards for their sheen.
The most common names from least shiny to most shiny are, matte, egg shell, semi-gloss, urushiol-based lacquers differ from most others, being slow-drying, and set by oxidation and polymerization, rather than by evaporation alone. In order for it to set properly it requires a humid, the phenols oxidize and polymerize under the action of an enzyme laccase, yielding a substrate that, upon proper evaporation of its water content, is hard. These lacquers produce very hard, durable finishes that are beautiful and very resistant to damage by water, alkali or abrasion. The active ingredient of the resin is urushiol, a mixture of various phenols suspended in water, the resin is derived from a tree indigenous to China, species Toxicodendron vernicifluum, commonly known as the Lacquer Tree. The fresh resin from the T. vernicifluum trees causes urushiol-induced contact dermatitis, the Chinese treated the allergic reaction with crushed shellfish, which supposedly prevents lacquer from drying properly. Lacquer skills became very highly developed in Asia, and many highly decorated pieces were produced, the earliest extant lacquer object, a red wooden bowl, was unearthed at a Hemudu culture site in China.
By the Han Dynasty, many centres of production became firmly established. The knowledge of the Chinese methods of the process spread from China during the Han and Song dynasties, eventually it was introduced to Korea, Southeast
Acorn
The acorn, or oak nut, is the nut of the oaks and their close relatives. It usually contains a seed, enclosed in a tough, leathery shell. Acorns are 1–6 cm long and 0. 8–4 cm broad, Acorns take between 6 and 24 months to mature, see List of Quercus species for details of oak classification, in which acorn morphology and phenology are important factors. Acorns play an important role in forest ecology when oaks are the dominant species or are plentiful, the volume of the acorn crop may vary wildly, creating great abundance or great stress on the many animals dependent on acorns and the predators of those animals. Acorns, along with nuts, are termed mast. Wildlife that consume acorns as an important part of their diets includes birds, such as jays, some ducks, small mammals that feed on acorns include mice and several other rodents. Large mammals such as pigs and deer consume large amounts of acorns, in Spain and the New Forest region of southern England, pigs are still turned loose in dehesas in the autumn, to fill and fatten themselves on acorns.
Heavy consumption of acorns can, on the hand, be toxic to other animals that cannot detoxify their tannins, such as horses. The larvae of moths and weevils live in young acorns. Acorns are attractive to animals because they are large and thus efficiently consumed or cached, Acorns are rich in nutrients. Percentages vary from species to species, but all acorns contain large amounts of protein and fats, as well as the calcium and potassium. Total food energy in an acorn varies by species, but all well with other wild foods. Acorns contain bitter tannins, the amount varying with the species, since tannins, which are plant polyphenols, interfere with an animals ability to metabolize protein, creatures must adapt in different ways to use the nutritional value acorns contain. Animals may preferentially select acorns that contain fewer tannins, when the tannins are metabolized in cattle, the tannic acid produced can cause ulceration and kidney failure. Animals that cache acorns, such as jays and squirrels, may wait to consume some of these acorns until sufficient groundwater has percolated through them to leach out the tannins, other animals buffer their acorn diet with other foods.
Many insects and mammals metabolize tannins with fewer ill effects than do humans, species of acorn that contain large amounts of tannins are very bitter and potentially irritating if eaten raw. This is particularly true of the acorns of American red oaks, the acorns of white oaks, being much lower in tannins, are nutty in flavor, this characteristic is enhanced if the acorns are given a light roast before grinding. Tannins can be removed by soaking chopped acorns in several changes of water, being rich in fat, acorn flour can spoil or molder easily and must be carefully stored
