Thursday 29 September 2011

Cracking nuts

There doesn't seem to be a generic French word for nut. Une noix is specifically a walnut, and other nuts such as peanuts, almonds, etc have their own names.

Well we have two mature walnut trees in the garden, and several productive hazlenuts, and since their nuts have been on the ground for a little while, I thought I should set about gathering them and shelling them.

I think that the squirrels must have found the walnuts first, judging by the number of split shells all around. They have nicked all the good ones too, because once I started cracking them, the kernels turned out to be almost all black and shrivelled.

The hazelnuts were a better story, and after half an hour's patient work with the nutcrackers I had a bowlful of sweet and crunchy nuts. Those that I didn't eat ended up in the nut mix that I have with my yoghurt in the mornings.

4 comments:

the fly in the web said...

We weren't on walnut soil...unfortunately...but used to buy sacks of them fresh from a chap who sold them on the brocantes.

Mark In Mayenne said...

They're not expensive to buy like that. I am wondering if it's worth the effort to gather them when they're at their best, and get someone to make walnut oil from them. I am trying to increase the number of walnut trees around by carefully avoiding mowing any that sprout in my field over the road. I am hoping for an orchard in the fullnes of time.

The bike shed said...

I have two wallnot trees but also a lot of pesky squirrels. Much better are the quince bushes that make excellent jam

Mark said...

They are red squirrels so I don't really mind. Too cute!

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