Wallowing in Walnuts

     A few years ago, our neighbors invited us to share in a walnut glean. Now, it's an annual task we look forward to and don't mind the work involved, given the reward. This year's crop was surprisingly (given weather) bountiful.

     The walnut tree (yes, only one) is a few miles away, perched on a hill at a small cattle ranch owned by a retired dentist. Its probably a century old and shades a wood-frame farmhouse that hasn't aged as gracefully as the tree. Stately in stature, the shapely old tree still produces prodigious amounts of walnuts. Would that we all remained so productive in our later years.

Hands & Knees Harvest

     The harvest happens when the nuts start to fall to the ground, sometime in October or November.

This year they were early and fell during one of the wettest Octobers on record (19.6 ins. in our neighborhood), so it was a muddy job. Normally there are at least two, sometimes three, harvest days. Collecting them from the ground is tough on the knees and back – a reminder of how little certain muscles get used nowadays. Still, it's a pleasant few hours visiting and joking with our neighbors over the constant plunking sound of nuts landing in our 5-gallon plastic buckets. Plus a grunt and “ouff!”, here and there, as we straighten up to move to another spot or empty our buckets.

      We empty the buckets into large totes in the back of the tree owner's pick-up. He usually comes by when we're there, tending to his cattle. When the harvest is complete, he hauls the load to a commercial nut dryer where they're dried and cracked (well, most of them). Given how many hazelnuts are mixed in with the walnuts when they're returned, it's apparently a multi-nut facility. The owner lets us know when they're ready and our neighbor picks them up and gives us half. This year that was about 200 pounds!

      The deal is, we shell all the nuts and get half and the owner gets half. Most years, it's just enough for a year of baking and snacking. This year we're shoe-horning them into the freezer and combing cookbooks for recipes using walnuts, especially savory ones. In fall and spring when the spinach crop is at its peak, we enjoy at least one wilted spinach salad each week with garlic and walnuts sauteed in olive oil. Nuts are also part of the topping for crisps composed of apples, rhubarb, blueberries and raspberries from our garden. Some swirl through carrot bread. More are roasted and ground into walnut butter for morning toast. Some are roasted and kept at hand for a healthful snack. I've read that eating a few before bed will help you sleep.

Nutritious Nuts

     Most nuts are good sources of protein, unsaturated fats, fiber and vitamin E. Walnuts are

especially rich in omega-3 fatty acids. Apparently, it's the amino acid tryptophan (think sluggishness after Thanksgiving turkey) in walnuts that induces sleep by nudging the body's serotonin and melatonin hormones into action. All in all, the good news is how many positives are packed into the oddly-shaped little nuts. The not-so-good news is the high-calorie fat (albeit unsaturated, it's still fat) in them. So, it's best to nibble, rather than grab handfuls, tasty and nutritious as they are.

Food Web

      I love the fact that a tree just a few miles away gives us another reason to be grateful for—and aware of—our local bounty for healthful daily sustenance. The walnuts it produces perfectly complement other local ingredients, such the wheat, triticale and rye grains I get from another local farmer to grind and make bread for toast. And there's plenty of jam wanting to join the party, made with rhubarb and gooseberries from the garden.

      It's proof again that we live in food nirvana!
P.S. (Piles of Shells)
     Wondering where all those shells go? They make great filler for garden paths!