by David E Bay, High Councilor

I was out in my yard on my hands and knees trying to pick up round objects from my front lawn when I felt a little tap on my head. It was another one. I suppose if I plant oak trees, I need to expect acorns to drop off, even on my head when I am under them.
About 15 years ago my sweetheart, Coleen, and I decided that we would plant some small oak trees in our front yard. Over the years we have planted many kinds of trees. Usually, it involved going to the nursery and purchasing a tree that was already growing. Then we would dig a hole and plant the tree by burying the root ball. This time, however, we decided to do it the Johnny Appleseed method; we planted the trees from the seeds. This was the first time I had successfully grown full-sized trees from seeds.
After deciding what we wanted, we looked around to find others who had had success in growing oak trees. The kind we wanted were the small Gambel Oak like grow on the mountainside rather than the big stately oak trees that I have seen east of the Mississippi. Our neighbors, the Siggard’s, had a good solid growth of oak trees and so did my sister who lives in Bountiful. We got acorns from both and put them where we wanted them to grow.
After planting them we just let them grow. The water we had for the lawn seemed to be all they needed other than the sunlight that came naturally. In fact, the trickiest part was to keep them from growing too much and overtaking our entire yard. That’s why I was out picking up the seeds from the lawn, so that our lawn would not turn into a forest.
In our Come Follow Me studies this month we learned, ” for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap” (Galatians 6:7)
What are we sowing? Are we sowing preparation for those things that are to come? Or are we just assuming that life will always keep going just the way we want it to?
When we take a little bit of time to prepare, there is a huge value when the trial comes to pass. Take a minute now to consider and make note, what do you feel your next step is in preparing for an earthquake or a disaster or another emergency?
As I was kneeling in the grass, I tried to figure out how I could make practical use of the acorns I was picking up. I heard that it was possible to make flour out of the acorns. In fact, my grandson, Jared, made edible acorn flour with some success. There is a bitter taste to unprocessed acorn flour caused by tannic acid in the acorn which makes it toxic. It needs to be processed to get rid of the tannic acid so it can be edible for people. Jared did this by days and days of rinsing and throwing away the dirty rinse water. Boiling with multiple sessions is another method of getting rid of tannic acid. Acorns have been used for food by people for millennia. But that seemed like a lot more work than what I wanted to deal with.
However, there is a very good and easy use for acorns that I have witnessed firsthand. They are super at growing oak trees like the ones they fell from. If you would like to plant your own stand of oak trees, I have plenty of acorns to share.