Fall Bounty From the city: Nut and Seed Harvesting

Ohio buckeye nut with the tree behind displaying fall colors.

With the arrival of our twins, the projects I wanted to implement out on our homestead property really stalled out. Taking care of twins is really hard! With our land over an hour away, finding the free time I need has been almost impossible. However, I still had an itch to do something productive that would help me out next year; this is where the seed collecting comes in.

Last year, I had success starting some Elm tree seeds and since then I have been on the lookout for other interesting trees I might be able to start from seed. I wasn't having much success with this endeavour until one day a co-worker texted me saying he saw these "weird looking trees with nuts that look like spiky nut sacks." I asked him to text me a picture of them along with the address where he found the trees. I am a self professed tree nerd and my interest was piqued, to say the least.

One day, I had some time to stop by that address on the way home and indeed they were weird looking trees. They had been planted all up and down the road in a residential neighborhood as landscaping trees. After some research, I determined that the strange trees were called Ohio Buckeye. They get their name from the nuts resemblance to the eye of a buck deer. A member of the chestnut family, the nuts of the Ohio Buckeye are generally considered inedible by humans because they contain high levels of tannic acid. Some wildlife like squirrels have been known to eat them and they make a great ornamental tree. In the past, some people would keep a buckeye nut in their pocket for good luck.

Burr Oak on the left and Ohio Buckeye on the right.

Ohio Buckeye nut in the husk and with husk split open. Note that this husk has 3 nuts in it!

Anyway, the nuts on these Buckeye trees weren't quite ready but I made a mental note to return later in the year when they were. The nuts are ready when they fall to the ground and split open on their own.

Nearby to these Buckeye trees, I came across some small Oak trees also planted along the road as landscape trees and sure enough a few of them already had acorns on them! Oaks are a little more well known and come in many different varieties. The ones I found, I think, are Burr Oak. Oak acorns are a favorite of wildlife, especially squirrels and deer, and can also be eaten by humans after removing the tannin. This is done by shelling the acorns and boiling the nuts,then changing the water repeatedly until they no longer taste bitter.

The acorns are ready to harvest when they are brownish in color and can easily be pulled from the cap. They can also be collected from the ground but should be inspected for worms before processing.

The final seeds I collected this year were from a large apple tree that I came across behind a retirement home I was working on. The apples were absolutely delicious, I think they might have been Honey Crisp. The home manager allowed me to take a grocery bag full of these apples and I saved the seeds from most of them. While apples grown from seed don't usually taste like their parents every once in awhile you end up with a really good eating apple so I figured it was worth a try to plant them.

Finally, a few weeks after the initial find of the Ohio Buckeye trees I returned to gather seeds. By this time, the trees had become a bright orange color and the nuts appeared ready. I didn't find many on the ground; I suspect people in the neighborhood were cleaning them up but the ones I pulled from the tree split easily in my hand so I am pretty sure they were far enough along.

I am looking forward to planting these seeds in the spring and will definitely share my results!

Check out this short video I also made about collecting seeds!