A weekend of doing a whole lotta nuttin’

Brainstorming workshops on the next steps we can take 

to develop a new culture of small regional nut processing facilities together.

The Quaker Oaks Tree Crop conference 

is going to be held in 

Blacksburg, Va September 14-16th

Come join the Acornucopia I-81 nut parade as we gather in Blacksburg for a camp out weekend focused on a collaboration of developing small regional nutteries. Asheville, Johnson City, Abingdon, Wytheville, Blacksburg, Roanoke, Lexington, Staunton, Harrisonburg, Charlottesville, and all their satellite communities are all along this major artery and we could be working together to create a new economy base around perennial tree crops supporting our local economies.

Weekend passes here- 30.00: 

A group campsite has been reserved at Boley Field just outside of Blacksburg in the Jefferson National Forest. Its is a beautiful location with lots of bike trails to explore. Tabla Rasa Restaurant will be catering  dinner Saturday night with awesome local organic food, and there will be potluck meals the rest of the weekend where food preparation is an exercise and a metaphor for sharing, creative collaboration, and working with what we have to feed everyone.

Just as the idea of cooking for 50 people is daunting, getting nuts from wild trees and creating food (Mast to mouth) is just too hard for individuals to take on as there are so many aspects to it. For the last 2 million years humans have worked together every Fall to reap the abundant harvests of the trees around them. Relying on each other is how we evolved to be human. Acornucopia is a  coalescence  of people who envision a world of mutually beneficial cooperatives. First we must gather and define a vision that is relevant for ourselves and our communities, and then see what talents people have to contribute. Needed are foragers, “nutworkers”, mechanics and tinkerers, marketers, teachers, artists, leaders, followers, nutritionists, computer savvy folks, cooks, value added entrepreneurs….. We have yet to find someone whose skills couldnt be utilized for getting highly nutritious nuts to the people who so badly are in need of them!

At the beginning of nut fall we will gather over the course of the third weekend in September 

and figure out what is the next step towards capturing this abundant resource that falls around us. 

The agenda will loosely be as follows:

1.) Learning which are the high value native nuts crops and identifying the trees they come from

2,) Scouting for these trees and what to look for when harvesting

3.) Techniques in gathering nuts, curing and getting to a hub/ processor

4.) Setting up a nut hub where nuts can be stabilized and safely held

If time and interest allows:

1.) Cooking with nuts/ what can be made from nuts

2.) Building markets for products

3.) “Show and smell”- sampling nuts, oils , flours, nut cheeses, etc

4.) Scaling up processing with efficient tools

5.) Completely nuts Talent show

6.) Mead Circle

7.) (???)

Within this framework we will gather in groups to discuss how to begin interfacing our communities with one another in supportive ways for a mutual goal. 

E.g. People who are tinkerers may gather around equipment development for curing nuts and processing, foragers may organize community forays, food people may gather with marketers and brainstorm about new product development, computer folks may get excited about developing foraging software aps, on and on…

…and you are needed.

This is going to fun, homespun, and s%^t is gonna get done.

Come as you are, come as you like , come and let’s go nuts

Tickets can be got:

 https://www.eventbrite.com/e/quaker-oaks-tree-crop-gathering-tickets-45404320545

For more info go to : https://www.acornucopiaproject.com/quaker-oaks

and 

https://www.acornucopiaproject.com/blog