Year of Plenty: Traditional Foodways Feed Us With Trees: Ancient Wisdom for a Resilient Food System with Elspeth Hay
27 snips
Sep 4, 2025 
Elspeth Hay, a writer and public radio host known for her work on edible trees and agroforestry, shares her insights on the importance of trees in our food systems. She dives into the revival of acorns, chestnuts, and hazelnuts, exploring their historical significance and culinary potential. Elspeth also discusses the role of prescribed burns in ecosystem management and the challenges of reintroducing tree-based foods amidst modern agricultural practices. With a blend of ancient wisdom and contemporary practices, she highlights a resilient future rooted in trees.
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Oaks Are Both Keystone And Food
- Oaks are ecological superstars that also produce edible acorns people historically used as staple foods.
- Discovering acorns as food cracked Elspeth Hay's 'no farms no food' worldview and revealed human ties to wild foods.
Learning Oak Tending From Ron Reed
- Elspeth learned oak tending practices from Karuk cultural biologist Ron Reed during early COVID Zooms and later visits.
- He taught her that 'fire is medicine' and that controlled burning renews landscapes and supports oaks.
Why Acorns Vanished From Main Diets
- Acorn use declined because of land privatization, cultural erasure, and a one-size cultural narrative about staple crops.
- Different acorn species behave differently, so homogenized food narratives erased local knowledge and uses.
