"Putting her fears aside, Ruby picked up a fairly good-sized limb and snapped off the smaller branches. Walking stick. To be used to stir up the growth, warning any snakes or creepy critters that she was coming through. She set out in the direction away from the road, hoping she might find at least one of the two necessities needed. As she waded through the weeds and briers, she spotted several plants—curly dock, red sumac berries, dandelion greens and root, plantain, and wild rose hips--that would at some point provide her with much needed nutrition. Also, she found a tree heavy with beechnuts, many which littered the ground. She felt encouraged to see so many foraging opportunities available to her new hideaway." -- Painted Windows--Gera Jones, 2021
A tree heavy with beechnuts! The last few nights, I have been busily doing my final edit (hopefully) of Painted Windows. As I came across this paragraph, I immediately thought
about the beech tree (an American Beech or Fagus Grandifolia) that sits on our farm. So yesterday on my way home from work, as I entered Heaven's Gait Farm and drove along the quarter-mile lane to our home, I stopped in the area of the beech tree. Sure enough! It was loaded with the prickly nuts. I grabbed one of my reusable shopping bags and tromped through the weeds and dying poison ivy to the tree, and one by one, began plucking the delicious nuts from the tree. As I moved around the lower branches trying to reach the "larger" nuts, my boots crunches on the ones that indeed "littered the ground." For a moment, I tried to imagine what it would have been like to be Ruby...homeless, no adult to watch over her and take care of her needs, having to fend and feed herself from whatever edibles she could find in the wild. And, before I knew it, I had a half bag full of beech nuts! Ruby would have collected as many of these delicious nutrient-rich nuts as she could. Especially, having if she had identify a shelter for the winter.
Beechnuts can be hulled and stored for an extended period (as long as some other critter doesn't stumble upon them!).
Interestingly, a beech tree doesn't start producing beechnuts until it is roughly 40 years old, and the tree is more like 60 years old before it begins producing large amounts of the
nuts. Another interesting fact about the beech tree is that it does not produce nuts every year! Generally, beechnuts grace the trees branches every two to eight years! So, stumbling upon a beech loaded with its fruit is a true treasure! Furthermore, it is not just the nut of the beech tree that is edible: The young leaves in the early spring are also wonderful additions to salads! These are eaten mainly in the first week or two of budding out as they become tougher with age. While the leaves are harvested in spring, the beechnut is harvested anywhere from September to November, with some saying that their flavor improves after the first frost.
To shell a beechnut, the two triangular nuts are popped out of the prickly hull. Fortunately, the hull is not a prickly as a chestnut or a burr. Imagine "soft pricklies"! Then, if
you intend to store the beechnut, you leave them in their shell. Otherwise, you take a fingernail or a knife and pry the shell open at the point of the nut, peeling back one of the three sides of the nut. Once one side is gone, the nut can be easily liberated. Now keep in mind, because of their small size (about the size of a pencil eraser), it takes approximately 1,600 beechnuts to equal a pound!
Now, while the nut tastes delicious and can be eaten raw in limited quantities, it is best to roast them, which only improves the flavor! The nut contain a substance called "saporiin glycoside" that can cause gastric issues if a large number of raw nuts are eaten.
Amazingly, there are numerous health benefits gained from beechnuts in the diet. Not only are beechnuts know to stimulate hair growth and follicle beds, but they improve digestion, offer headache relief, have antioxidant potential boosting the immune system,
enhance kidney function and its diuretic qualities help clean out the body's system improving metabolic efficiency.
Furthermore, beechnuts contain, copper, manganese, Vitamin B1, Vitamin B2, Vitamin B6, Vitamin B9, iron and potassium. Additionally, this little gem contains Amino acids, tryptophan, threonine, isoleucine, Leucine, lysine, methionine, and cystine. I guess I am going to have to do some Googling to find out more about these!
So, if you find yourself lost and hungry in the woods in the fall, look for a beech tree! Or, if you just want to experience one of the unique and delicious flavors our ancestors foraged and lived on, try a beech nut. Enjoy! I know I will!
P.S. For those of you who remember Beechnut gum, it had nothing to do with beechnuts!
Photographs by me!
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