That's Nuts!

Autumn is nut harvesting time at Gael Glen Farm.  We have two nut bearing trees on the farm, only one of which is edible.  In the front yard we have a prolific Horse Chestnut tree.  Unfortunately, horse chestnuts are not good for anything really - definitely not to eat even for horses.  I think squirrels are likely the only ones really excited about these nuts.

Horse chestnut tree

For the first time since we moved to the farm, the Black Walnut tree in our back yard has produced nuts.  We are super excited about this since many people say black walnuts are the best tasting nut.  They are expensive too at about $14/lb.

Black walnut tree

Black walnut on the tree

Today I picked as many nuts as I could reach and we ended up with a bowl full.  We cracked off the green outer husk by crushing the nut with a cast iron frying pan.  Under the green shell is a stinky yellow substance that stains everything and smells really awful.

We rinsed the nuts discarding any that floated and then laid them to cure for one month on clean, dry newspaper.  

We will return to the nuts in a future post when we are ready for next steps....I can already taste the maple walnut ice cream I am going to make using our home grown black walnuts and Ian's homemade maple syrup.  Mmmm...