I also live in the East Bay and there are lots of Italian-type chestnuts planted around here, and elsewhere around the Bay and northern Claifornia, that drop their tasty bounty in the fall. if you are in Berkeley, look on the south side of campus up around Fraternity Row...I know peple who ave kept themselves going when out of work and money collecting chestnuts.

and the hazelnuts (filberts) also grow like mad once they get started.

lots of feral walnuts, and the escaped orchard trees, al;l along the Sacramento River. I took an August boat trip with an now-deceased love many eyars ago and we ate wild walnuts, wild almonds, wild grapes, wild peaches and more.

roasted apricot kernels are okay (I've chopped them and used them as toppings for cobbnler) but not as good as real almonds.

The British are worried about their oaks- apparently Sherwood forest has lost half it's density- lots of oaks are experiencing dieback for as yet unknown reasons, although fungus is suspected, something like Dutch Elm Disease. Have the oaks in your area experienced lots of dieback? 25% loss of leaves midsummer? Or are the small acorns the only sign you're seeing? I'm always concerned about things like that, as travelling humans we just spread alien fungus and bacteria around like crazy, and in dealing with biosecurity the last thing I want is to deal with a new disease. If you're in California, Oregon, Idaho or Washington...or many other states, there's gigantic wholesale growers who ship to the entire continent. Sorry if I sound alarmist, honestly it could just be the weather too;-)
L

One of the big oak trees here in N. Oakland, CA dropped tons of small immature acorns about a month ago. There are still a few acorns on the tree ripening to full size but I was amazed at the amount of immature acorns on the ground. Sad really. I hope this isn't a long term trend.