Sunday, September 12, 2004
Walnuts
Walnut trees, Juglans regia, are deciduous trees that grow up to 30m (100ft) and bear fruit in September/October. The timber is also used for it's beautiful markings. The leaves, when crushed, give out an aromatic smell which is said to produce light-headedness, drowsiness or even nausea.
In our garden we have several walnut trees of various sizes that produce many kilos of walnuts each year. Most of the time we just leave the walnuts to fall and to rot or be collected by squirrels etc. but added to an apple pie they are delicious.
The walnuts are green on the tree, oval and about 5cm (2") long with a thick fleshy husk. Inside is the walnut fruit with it's wrinkled shell. I understand that you can collect them when they are green and pickle them.
One trick I have used to increase walnut production is to beat the walnut tree trunk and branches with a stick in early Spring. Apparently this frightens the tree into a generating more fruit to reproduce. It's most probably an old wife's tale, but this year it worked for me. Last year's harvest was much lower than this year's, but the weather last year was hotter and drier. So who knows, but as the proverb goes "A dog, a wife, and a walnut tree: the more you beat them, the better they be."
Two other walnut tree facts;
- that a walnut tree can bleed to death if pruned. That's what some books say, but in late Spring or early Summer I have lightly pruned some overhanging branches and a few internal branches without any obvious problems.
- dashboards for Rolls Royce's are made from the walnut wood in the heart of the roots. You don't get much, but maybe that's why they are in Rolls Royces.
The green fruits, pictured, eventually fall from the tree in September or October and husk slowly dries up going black as it does. Eventually it falls off the internal seed revealing a light brown wrinkly walnut we know from the supermarket. My walnuts are slightly smaller and oval shaped rather than the ping-pong ball sized versions you buy commercially.
If you collect the walnuts with most of the blackening husk still attached and pop them in a string bag (like you buy oranges in) and hang the bag up away from rodents and squirrels, eventually you end up with a bag full of walnuts. When they are relatively fresh the shell can be removed easily to expose whole walnut fruits. By the time Christmas arrives you end up with the ritual grunting and groaning with a pair of inadequate nut crackers.
When collecting walnuts where the husk has already started to go black, beware, as they ooze a dark brown liquid which stains. Even on fingers the walnut staining lasts for quite a while.
Walnuts
