Hands down, the best way to get local fresh produce is by finding it in your neighborhhood. Here is a picture of what I came home with after a couple of walks this weekend: pears, apples (braeburn and granny smith) and walnuts. Not pictured are the many, many blackberries I ate along the way, as well as a couple of cherries and a plum. There were more apples and walnuts than I wanted. The funny thing is, I couldn't find apples at the farmer's market this week. By the way, does anyone know about harvesting walnuts? I could bring home a whole bag of the green fruit, if I wanted, but I wasn't sure what would be next. I remember getting the hard shelled nuts out of their black dry skins in our yard growing up-- so do I put these in the sun, or what? I guess could look it up, but I prefer the community- friendly sharing of knowledge!
8 comments:
If you can find those walnuts still green and smooth, Vin de Noix sounds like very reasonable use. If they still have the skins on and are wrinkly, you can peel them (with gloves!). I would crack a few open before going to too much trouble to make sure they are really ready. The kernel inside should be full, not shriveled. Once collected, they should be hulled right away to prevent the husk from discoloring the "meats" and giving them an off flavor. Once hulled, you can wash them and sort the good from the bad. Bad ones will float (like rotten eggs, eh?). Then you unfortunately have to let them dry for a few weeks. If you really like walnuts, this is not a big deal, but if you merely tolerate them it might be a bit much to go through all this work for them.
Great blog! I am sure a lot of people will really benefit from all you are exploring and learning!
We had an English walnut tree in our yard when I was growing up. Gloves for hulling are a good idea, that stuff will stain your hands brown for quite some time! You acan also make ink and dyes from the hulls.
Thanks for the info and the link, Daniel. I'll have to do some hulling this week, then I'll get some younger ones to try the vin de noix recipe.
Great link tech_sam, I really want to go and make some Vin de Noix now. Sounds intriguing, and likely has a round complex flavor. Mmmm!
The yard of our (soon to be) new house has a few black walnut trees. One is mature and there are two or three others. I am excited to see what we can do with them. So if I make Vin de Noix, I wonder if I can find locally made vodka? And what about spices? We are discovering new food resources everyday, so I guess it might be possible.
Bethany, you can make local vodka with your water distiller...(shhh)
Nut wine? Come on, let's come up with better uses for nuts! Only kidding...
Oh, good. I knew there should be a good reason that we went through the trouble of uninstalling that thing so we could take it with us! It isn't everyday you end up with the option to have a free distiller so it was hard to leave in the house for the next owners to throw in the trash.
Ariana,
I've been thinking about your new backyard and all of its possibilities! Planting fruit trees is a wonderful way to fill in corners and edges of your yard. If you can't afford them all at once. you might try the "Birthday Tree" idea.(read the book) Coming up is your wedding anniversary. You can buy a tree and plant it ceremoniously. Get metal tags from the garden store to "engrave" with the date/celebration. We have trees in our yard that commemorate Kirk's Mom and me on Mother's day. As you know, our lot isn't that huge, but Kirk has managed to plant lime, tangerine, kumquat, 3 navel oranges, tangelo, apple, peach (my favorite), lemon and many ornamental trees. We plant dwarf varieties to save space and height. It's a lovely tradition.
Love, Aunt Gretchen
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