We went camping at El Dorado Park in Long Beach this weekend. Although I was fearful that we'd get rained out, we didn't have a single drop of rain. We tried fishing, with no luck. However, my son's friend caught five fish so we know they were out there. El Dorado park is quite large - about 103 acres. We camped on the grassy side of Spring Street. On the other side is a largish natural park - the emphasis is on California native plants.
The California live oaks were absolutely full of acorns and the squirrels were busy knocking them all down. I picked up a few of the less gnawed ones to play with. It was fun to cut one open and taste it with the Scouts (bleck!) and imagine the learning process that the native Indians went through to evolve their use of acorns as a food staple.
I have some left over. Last year it was ridiculously easy to sprout Engleman? Oaks by just putting the acorns in pots with a little potting soil. People in northern California have a very involved routine for sprouting acorns that I tried previously, with very little success: the acorns molded and sprouted in the fridge following these directions. None sprouted after planting. I think that with our different weather and oak selection that a casually planted seed might be all that's needed for oak tree success.
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