Indian grinding rocks at Miners Ravine Nature Preserve, near the Folsom-Auburn Road in Granite Bay

Apparently, acorns are now considered a superfood. In South Korea, according to the Wall Street Journal (behind a pay wall, sorry), the squirrel population has declined by 30% over the past several years thanks to humans hoarding acorns for making noodles and other food items. My only experience with eating acorns was many years ago; I was 9 or 10 years old and had just learned in school that acorns were a staple of the California Indians’ diet. I decided to take a few acorns from the oak tree in our front yard, smash them up, and see how they tasted — let’s just say I was not favorably impressed. Of course, the Native Americans knew the proper way to prepare acorn meal, and grinding them on rocks like these was only the beginning of the process.