Surrey Homes | SH37 | November 2017 | Gift supplement inside

Jane Howard’s
Fables from the Farm
Jane contemplates trying her hand at making her own acorn coffee
What a year for acorns. I
can’t remember there ever
being such a bumper
harvest and the residents at Coopers are
collectively making the most of it.
The pigs are in heaven. Unlike
cows, sheep, horses and humans
which can all die if they eat too many
acorns, the Terminator-like digestive
system of a pig can process industrial
quantities with no ill effect.
In fact for thousands of years,
commoners would drive their domestic
pigs into woodlands in the autumn and
release them to fatten, a
practice known as ‘pannage’,
but how on earth did they
ever get them back again?
This was very common
in the Weald, indeed the
Domesday Book reports
over 150,000 pigs arriving
in the region each year.
Although East Sussex
remains the most densely
wooded county in the UK, pannage is no
longer carried out here, in fact it’s only
really in the New Forest where it’s an
important part of the rural economy. With
the possible exception of Coopers Farm.
For eleven months of the year we
spend a great deal of our time and effort
ensuring the pigs remain the right side of
the fence, penned in to about 10 acres of
woodland. When the fences are breached
and we get break-out the consequences
“commoners
would drive their
domestic pigs
into woodlands
in the autumn
and release
them to fatten”
are pretty dire, especially if the ground is
wet. It takes three or four pigs no more
than a few hours to effectively rotovate
a patch about the size of a tennis court.
Great if you want to turn over a patch of
brambles, not so great if it’s your precious
permanent pasture that’s being ploughed.
However at this time of year, with
the acorns on the ground, we open the
gate in the mornings and they spill out
and proceed in single file round the field
boundaries stopping under all the oak
trees to hoover up the acorns. And after
a couple of hours they are so full up they
are easy to drive back into
their enclosure to sleep off
the excess for another day.
In Spain and much of
central Europe pannage
pork is highly sought after
– the fat is much yellower
and the meat much darker
with a stronger flavour
than regular pork. And so
it is with our pork. Having
stuffed themselves throughout October the
pork we produce in November is different,
much stronger and utterly delicious.
And talking of gastronomic delights,
acorns have frequently been used as
a coffee substitute, particularly when
coffee was unavailable or rationed. The
Confederates in the American Civil War
and the Germans during World War II
(when it was called Ersatz coffee), were
both converts. So I thought I’d have
a go and if you’re interested read on
(if you’re ever shipwrecked on a desert
island, and assuming it’s a temperate
one, you might be quite glad you did).
Fresh acorns are full of tannin which has
to be got rid of. First, collect big ripe ones
and shell them (which is easier if you freeze
them first). Then soak in boiling water and
once the water turns brown, pour it off
and soak again in fresh hot boiling water.
Keep doing this until the water is clear – a
process known as leaching and incidentally
the brown liquid is used for tanning leather.
Once the acorns are leached, roast on
a low heat to dry slowly and as they start
to turn brown you can decide whether
you want a light, medium or dark roast.
Remove, cool, grind and enjoy! Well, try to!
Follow Jane Howard – and the farm
– on Instagram @coopersfarm
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