Finding an acorn
An acorn is bitter to the bite, full of tannins, yet California peoples such as the Maidu made it a staple by grinding it and soaking the bitterness away. Some good things only nourish after they have soaked a while.
What it may mean
Bite into a raw acorn and the bitterness is instant; the nut is full of tannins. Yet for many generations acorns were a staple food in California. The Maidu, who held a dance each winter to ensure a good crop, shelled and ground the nuts, then poured warm water over the meal for hours until the bitterness washed out and it was fit to eat. Patience turned something inedible into the most reliable food of the year. Many good things arrive bitter: honest criticism, a hard first season at a new job, advice from a relative you would rather not hear. Some of them only nourish after they have soaked for a while. Old acorn lore kept its eye on the crop, and in Yorkshire a heavy acorn year was said to make for bad bacon.
Depending on how you saw it
A fall when acorns pelt the roof
Some years acorns bang on roofs and cars and carpet the sidewalks, and other years there are almost none. Oaks across a whole region fruit heavily in the same years, so animals cannot eat them all. Which of your efforts works best in one big push rather than a steady trickle?
Acorns in a groom's pocket
A list of wedding superstitions printed in 1903 advised a groom to carry acorns in his pocket at the wedding to ensure a long married life. A few seeds in a pocket are a quiet bet on decades. What small token do you carry for someone else's sake?
Acorns from a famous oak
After the Restoration, Brand records, King Charles II gathered acorns from the Royal Oak that had hidden him after a lost battle and set them in St. James's Park, watering them himself. What have you planted from a hard time that you now look after?
Why it happens in nature
Oaks drop their acorns from late summer into fall, and many oaks across a region produce heavy crops in the same years, called mast years, with lean years between. Acorns are rich in starch and fat but also in bitter tannins, which is why people who ate them leached the meal in water first. Squirrels and jays carry acorns off and cache them, and the ones never recovered can sprout.
What folk beliefs say
England (Yorkshire)
In Yorkshire, it was said that if acorns are plentiful, the bacon will be bad.
Source: Cora Linn Daniels; C. M. Stevans (eds.), Encyclopaedia of Superstitions, Folklore, and the Occult Sciences of the World, vol. 2 (1903), vol. 2, p. 822. View the page
Maidu (California)
The Maidu, a 1903 collection says, held a certain dance soon after winter set in to ensure a plentiful crop of acorns for the coming year, believing that if they neglected it, the oaks would not bear.
Source: Cora Linn Daniels; C. M. Stevans (eds.), Encyclopaedia of Superstitions, Folklore, and the Occult Sciences of the World, vol. 2 (1903), vol. 2, p. 822. View the page
England
Brand records that after the Restoration, Charles II carried some of the acorns of the Royal Oak at Boscobel to St. James's Park and used to water them himself.
Source: John Brand; Henry Ellis (ed.), Observations on the Popular Antiquities of Great Britain, vol. 1 (1849), vol. 1, p. 275. View the page
To reflect on
What bitter thing in your life turned nourishing once you gave it time to soak?