As Sweet As it Gets.

BalanoTrees, a nursery created by Joan Montserrat and Francesc Ribera specialized in the selection and production of oaks that bear sweet acorns, has been locating and cataloging oaks that bear sweet acorns across the Iberian Peninsula and on the island of Mallorca for five years. The idea that acorns were an important food source in human history and proto-history is generally accepted today but explanations as to why they were abandoned vary; some stressing the presumed difficulties in their cultivation and others the ideological component represented by cereal agriculture in developing central states. Reviving interest in acorns-as-food has gained considerable momentum in the recent past and, in this context, the Iberian Peninsula’s historical dehesa model has attracted much attention. The present paper explores different aspects of the acorn-as-food, starting with a not-sosimple question: what is a truly “sweet acorn”? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]