are beech nuts edible
They are if you're a pig. Since pigs and humans have very similar diets, we may well be able to eat them, but that's no guarantee that they're worth eating, or even that our teeth would be able to handle them, since we can't bite like pigs.
Hi,
Beech nuts are edible even if your not a pig.
In the Netherlands small children (but grown ups as well) collect beech nuts in the forest or parks and eat them. The outershell cracks easily at the "seams". Some parents roast them, but I don't know how (oven or frying pan?)
The nuts are small, so it's a bit like eating sunflower seeds. More fun than filling. The taste is not remarkable, just a little nutty. And sometimes there is a bit of hairy stuff that sticks in your throat.
I remember eating them in the school playground but that is a very long time ago so I can't remember if there were any after effects but I am still here....
T.
cheers , sounds as though there not worth the effort, but i ll give it a go seeing that its free food.
I picked loads of beech nuts this year, but as Garjan said they really arent worth it. I read in a survival book that you lose more energy collecting beech nuts than you gain by eating them. I do like the taste of them though
Its just a stop gap until sweet chestnuts are ready, only 3 weeks to wait before they are ready.
Just to reconfirm, I've eaten hundreds of them as a child having been encouraged by my father (who's a botanist, or botamist as we called him at the time ;D). I think they must've been okay (you peel them IIRC). Oh, and I'm not dead yet.
They have quite a strong flavour - fairly bitter. There must be something nice you can do, maybe roasting on a piece of fish. I'm hungry.