My feed
Premium

Please
or
to access all these features

Find tips and tricks to make your garden or allotment flourish on our Gardening forum.

Gardening

Walnut Trees...

4 replies

FishfingersAreOK · 23/08/2013 21:35

Hello

We have two enormous walnut trees in our garden. Last year (when we moved in) there were barely any walnuts. This year there are ooodlless - probably over a thousand.

Have been googling and researching a bit to try and work out what to do with them...all I have discovered is that

a) I have left it too late for pickling them (their shells have formed)
b) The green casing is currently impossible to get off and the walnuts inside (I think) are not ripe
c) The juice from the walnuts stains your hands brown
d) I would like to enjoy some of the walnuts before the squirrels spread even more of a walnut shell carpet over the orchard lawn.

So please any other walnut tree guardians/experts....please...
when are they pickable?
How will I know they are pickable
What (if anything) do I need to do once picked (eat instantly, store?)

Thank you!

OP posts:
Report
echt · 24/08/2013 07:35

I must say that as soon as I saw this thread I though of the proverb: A woman, a dog, and a walnut tree, the more they're beat, the better they be." Bloody unpleasant, but the latter part is about the breaking of branches to get down the walnuts which promotes new growth.

DH pickled green walnuts this year, but they don't seem to have worked. (We bought the walnuts, so have no advice about the trees) NOt very helpful of me, I realise.

Report
Blackpuddingbertha · 26/08/2013 19:58

Squirrels get all of ours.

Occasionally I find some they have missed. I wait until they fall off, then leave them a while for the outer covering to breakdown a bit so it's easy to remove. Then let the shell dry and they'll keep for ages.

Wear gloves if removing the outer. The brown staining does not come off.

Report
Bowlersarm · 26/08/2013 20:00

I have seen walnuts on our walnut tree for the first time in ten years, so eagerly taking in all the tips.

Report
FishfingersAreOK · 06/10/2013 13:12

Just in case anyone searches for advice.....we have harvested walnuts!!

They recently have started to drop with a few coming out of the shells - so I guessed that this meant they were ripe. Opened a few and yep - tasty walnuts

Sent DC out to "harvest" the windfall/dropped ones. (tree is too big to get many from branches - though we did shake a few branches.)

DCs came back with about half already out of the green casing and half still in.

Managed to get the green casing off fairly easily - gave them a gentle squish in this www.amazon.co.uk/Eddingtons-44TP05-Top-Cracker-Black/dp/B000H7AFVU/ref=sr_1_1?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1381061265&sr=1-1&keywords=nutcracker&tag=mumsnet&ascsubtag=mnforum-21 which allowed me to peel of the rest of the casing.

WEAR GLOVES! COVER UP STUFF THAT CAN BE STAINED! Sorry to shout (using stained fingers on my keyboard) but seriously the green casing stains like buggery. I used gloves but managed to have a hole in the thumb which means I have an attraactive yellowy/brown thumb and thumbnail. mmmm mmmm


So I have a tray full of walnuts which I shall dry off a bit and then store.

The squirrels have eaten thousands - I have about 100. There are only so many coffee and walnut cakes a human can eat - so I will let them off.

Happy walnutting - hope this is useful for someone in the future.

OP posts:
Report
Please create an account

To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.