I stand corrected. I guess they were some kind of shriveled, dried-up acorn (still hard to believe). Anyway, if all of the "acorns" in that area look like that this year--they probably won't attract too many deer as a food source, but still keep them in mind for future seasons. what did they have on the inside??

Like I said - looks like white oak berries not quite making it to fruit. Common in dry summers.

They are green on the inside. I'm sure the rain we've been getting will help them mature quite a bit and be ready by season.

One other comment - I do see the deer are eating these - as many broken on the ground as the few red oak acorns. Food is food.

those nuts look like butternuts, which are very common in Vermont.Put them in a dry place and leave until right before christmas.The the shell is real hard.Break open with a hammer and the nuts look like a walnut.Were talking super cookies in any recipe that you'd use a walnut.I've never seen a deer eat them

Nope. We've figured out they are acorns from oak trees. The acorns have grown quite a bit since I posted this in August and I also did some research. I found that some trees take a while to produce decent acorns, some trees don't produce as well when there is dry weather and some trees produce acorns every couple years or so.I've found plenty of places around my house that have acorns. These just struck me as a different type of tree at first, butit's figured out.