"Sturdy as an Oak"

Alternately titled... "What came first; the acorn or the oak?" somewhat resembling the ever sought out answer to "What came first; the chicken or the egg?"

As I have been walking my neighborhood, and for that matter, other locations this fall, I have been noticing and picking up acorns and acorn caps. I recall earlier in the year picking up pine cones for a craft project at work. It is a good thing I have deep pockets in the pants I wear when I am out walking. :) I am doomed, or rather destined, if I have kids to have kids who pick up anything and everything on their way anywhere. You never know what "treasure" you are going to find while you are out and about.

As I have been picking up acorns and admiring the beautiful and colorful leaves of the oak I have to question the origin of the saying "Sturdy as an oak" or "Mighty as an oak." I did lots of internet searching and can't find anything that leads me to an answer.
However, I have found the etymology of "Mighty oaks from little acorns grow" (the closest answer to my question):

Meaning

Great things may come from small beginnings.

Origin

The word acorn doesn't come from 'oak' and 'corn', as is popularly supposed, but from the Old English 'aecern', meaning berry or fruit. The tree genus Acer comes from the same root. Before oaks were mighty they were first either great, tall, sturdy or even just big.

Examples of early variants of 'mighty oaks from little acorns grow' are found in Geoffrey Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde, 1374, "as an ook cometh of a litel spyr" [a spyr, or spire, is a sapling]

Thomas Fuller's Gnomologia, 1732: "The greatest Oaks have been little Acorns."

And in an essay by D. Everett in The Columbian Orator, 1797: "Large streams from little fountains flow, Tall oaks from little acorns grow."

The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations states that 'great oaks from little acorns grow' is a 14th century proverb. Unfortunately, they don't include any details to support their view. The 'mighty' version is known, in the USA at least, from the middle of the 19th century. It appeared in A. B. Johnson's The Philosophical Emperor a Political Experiment, 1841.
Copyright © Gary Martin, 1996 - 2009

Besides the etymology of the phrase, I had seen a little bowl of silver acorns in a store. They were labeled "Good Luck Acorns," so the search for acorns being good luck symbols also began. This is what I found:

During the Norman Conquest, the English carried dried acorns to protect themselves from the brutalities of the day. Considered to be an emblem of luck, prosperity, youthfulness and power, the Acorn is a good luck symbol indeed! It also represents spiritual growth. (http://www.whats-your-sign.com/good-luck-symbol.html)

I, needless to say, have a bowl full of acorns and acorn caps now. Trying to decide if I should use them in a craft project, or let them just sit there and be lucky and bring me prosperity, youthfulness, power, and spiritual growth...who couldn't use all those things?!