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Seeing that picture of Kopi with the walnuts yesterday....I thought today, I'd show you my nuts.
But first some suitable music.
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.We actually used to sing "Here we go gathering.....", but never mind, local variations I expect.
But the strange thing is I have never seen any nut in May, especially on a cold and frosty morning.
These probably didn't mean real nuts, but knots, meaning something twisted together for the May Day celebrations. Posies maybe.
The word 'knot' gave its name to the weed we call 'knot-grass' and to the 'knot-gardens' of formal pattens and shapes we find today in the gardens of old houses.
I also believe that Purcell wrote a 'Knotting Song'.
But back to my nuts.
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.This is the first year that the squirrels have not stripped my walnut tree completely.
In the past I had to get out before them in July and gather the small soft green walnuts and pickle them for Christmas.
But this year I noticed last week that there were still loads on the tree and that the green outer shells were splitting and allowing the nuts to fall out.
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Gathered up quite a load. What happens now I don't know.
Will they dry up in the shells and end up not worth eating?
Those in the pots are the one's from last year that the squirrels buried and then forgot. I get them coming up all over the place. I even found one in one of my hanging baskets!
As a engineer I know all about a different sort of nut......usually a six sided nut with a thread on the inside. As an apprentice we were always taught to use the correct washer behind the nut before tightening. There was this little reminder stuck on the workshop wall.
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I too have always wondered why they were gathering in May and not in the autumn.
ReplyDeleteFunny you and I both had a nut post on the same day.Must both be nuts!
If you're wondering what happens nex, why don't you just try some?
Green walnuts! Haven't had those since I was a kid. My brother and I climbed the old tree and sat up there cracking walnuts with our teeth. If you eat enough of them, you'll get blisters on the inside of your mouth.
ReplyDeleteJust leave them out to dry for a while and they'll be great. Or, crack them and spread the meats on a cookie sheet and dry them in the oven. Then put them in plastic bags in the freezer and you can pull them out and use them for baking when you need them.
Our old walnut tree finally died a few years ago, then we had to fend off the poachers who kept trying to dig up the burl near the root, where the tree had been grafted.
It just occurred to me that ours was an ENGLISH walnut tree. You probably have its ancestors.
Foody,
ReplyDeletethat was really strange. When I saw your post on hazel-nuts I thought what a coincidence.
You can't eat them as they are now. I tried....only fit for squirrels. They are known as 'wet' walnuts. They need drying. Now thanks to..
Jan.... I know what to do.
Thanks Jan, that is a real help.
Eating them from the tree must have given you not only blisters, but black mouths? My fingers turn black just holding them.
Those two in the pots are looking for a new home...I'll put them in the post.
Thanks both.....Bernard
I'll take those walnut trees and send you a couple of native (to this country) Dogwoods.
ReplyDeleteWow! you get walnuts from you garden???
ReplyDeleteThank you Jan.
ReplyDeleteI found in my 'tree-book', several types of N. American Dogwood. One has round black fruit and the other oval red berries.
Question: Can you eat them?
Hi Cherie, yes...loads of green ones.
As I said, this is the first year the squirrels have left me any!
Have you eaten them green? I think they're horrid!
ReplyDeletePeeled a green walnut with my hands and honestly the green dye stayed on my fingers for days on end. That's what they mean by "permanent walnut juice" in the Mikado's song "Punishment Fits the Crime".
Mine actually went brown...looked like nicotine stained fingers!
ReplyDeleteI have tried eating them and they are horrid......but my local greengrocer has 'wet' walnuts for sale....so, somebody must be buying them...but, what on earth are the doing with them?
My Dogwoods have red berries. The birds eat them, so I guess people could, too. The reason I have so many seedlings, I think, is that the Cedar Waxwings didn't come through last year and strip the trees. The berries are ripening right now, they usually start falling as the leaves are turning bright orange and yellow, maybe next month.
ReplyDeleteI shall now be looking up 'Cedar Waxwings'! What lovely names.
ReplyDelete