local veggies (black walnuts)

[Guest guest]

Re: local veggies  (walnuts)

 

      My folks used to go gathering these in the fall and then we moved to a

place with a wooded acreage and lots of naturally occuring walnut trees.  Dad

would do that very thing of placing a batch of them (with the green outer hulls

on them) in the driveway and running over them several times with the car.  The

outer hulls can be removed by hand, but it is messy and stains up your hands,

big time.

 

      After the green hulls are removed, it is good to tie the nuts up in a

gunny sack or mesh bag...(The nut meats are incased inside a VERY hard

shell even after the green outer hull is removed.  This " woody " shell is very

tough to crack!).  If you place them in a bag, hang them in a dry, airy place

for a while--it helps to " age " the nut-meats, because I remember cracking open a

nut right after taking off the outer hull and it is kind of weird and " raw "

--tastes like a half-soaked bean or something.  If you age it a while (and I

don't know how long that takes, sorry!), then test by cracking open a nut and

tasting the nut-meat, it will gradually begin to take on a mellow, flavorful

taste that is the true " walnut " flavor.

 

     I don't know about the " English " walnut, but as to the black walnut--which

is what we always had--the flavor and quality of the nut-meats seemed to get

better the longer they were " aged " ,  The earliest nuts seemed to make an oil

that gave me a stinging sensation in my mouth when I ate them, but older ones

did not. 

 

     I was given a " sack " of nuts once shortly after I got married, and I just

put the sack aside and forgot about it in my pantry.  I put walnuts into

EVERYTHING I made, it seemed and ate them by the scores.  Those were the BEST

walnuts I ever had--so mellow and rich-tasting!  So, age them at least several

weeks is my advice.

 

     Finally, when you crack those nuts, be prepared--they are HARD!  And the

nut-meats, if they are black walnuts, are sometimes tricky to get " picked " out

of the shells.  Be careful of getting shell particles mixed in with the nut

pieces--bite down on a piece of shell and it can break a tooth!

 

     I hope you find ways to enjoy your walnuts.  They are very tasty and would

be interesting to add to a lot of foods.  Sure, they are a lot of trouble, but

that may be Nature's way of saying, " But I'm worth it! " on behalf of those great

nuts!  :-)

 

--Laura B., from Illinois

I didn't " find " it for about a whole year, and I decided I HAD to use up the

nuts really fast, since DH and I were soon to move. 

 

 

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

Thank you. The sack sounds like a great idea. I was told to put them on a screen

outside but know that the critters would get them!

Diana