Going (Wal)Nuts
The gardening season may be close to its end, there's still plenty to harvest. Our walnut tree is going crazy this year.
Nuts
I'm not nuts about nuts. Better yet: I don't like them... at all. So far, I haven't found a kind of nut that I think is delicious. I think the best one I ever tasted was a hazelnut, picked fresh from the tree. They have this weird texture, and a dry taste... I don't know how else to describe it.
My girlfriend likes them, though. She was the one who planted a walnut tree in the garden when she first came to live in this house. So, every year, I'm stuck with dozens and dozens (hundreds?) of walnuts.
They're pretty small compared to the walnuts that grow on the tree at a friend's house, so it takes a lot more work to get a decent portion of peeled walnuts. Still, their size bothers me a bit. The tree is growing in the chicken coop, and every day I'm expecting to find one of our chicken with her head smashed by a falling nut. So far, no accidents happened, but I often think I should get them a little chicken helmet, just to be safe, lol.
Healthy
Whether I like them or not, walnuts are supposed to be very healthy. They're considered to be one of the healthiest nuts around.
They're full of antioxidants and essential fatty acids. They help to lower your cholesterol, and reduce the risk of a high blood pressure.
If you don't eat meat, walnuts can be a great source of protein.
Now What?
I have buckets and buckets (and more buckets) of walnuts at the moment, and I'm not sure what to do with them. I'm so not looking forward to peeling them one by one, but I guess I don't really have another choice.
It might be an idea to make walnut butter, or -flour. I guess I'll be looking up some recipes, and see what is doable. I know how to make milk from nuts, but that's about it.
If you have any good ideas, feel free to let me know.
I'll keep you posted!!
This post uses @reward.app to pay 4% additional curation reward to curators.
Images have been sourced inside the post. Images that aren't sourced were create with The Logo Creator 7.
Source of divider images
Join The Best Natural Health Community on Hive
You don't like nuts? Are you nuts? 😜
Are walnut roasted vegetables and eggs a thing? That will give you a super protein boost though but otherwise, I'm out of ideas not that I have any chef awards haha!
I didn't know walnuts were the best kind of nut though, I like cashews and peanuts as long as they are roasted and salted... Which probably does no good to my cholesterol levels whatsoever 🤣
Hope you've been keeping well young bean!
I'm doing fine, young lad. Finally got this thing to work again. As it appears, all I needed to do was change the way I log in and use Peaklock instead of Keychain 🤦♀
Most nuts ended up as butter/ however, We roasted some with some spices, and it was utterly delicious. Need to make another batch of those, because I finished them before i remembered to take a picture. So I'll be collecting and peeling some more nuts this weekend. The things we do to get a blog post out... 😂
Oh really? I'm still using Keychain and seems to be OK for the most part 🤔
That does sound delicious and sounds like a great excuse to get another post together, now I'm really hungry so thanks for that 😆
You're welcome 😆
Second batch of nuts is ready to be peeled. Post coming up in a couple of days. 👍
Your garden looks lovely! I'm not sure if I've even seen it, though I know you keep making gardening posts. (Shame on me!)
As for the nuts, you're already on the right path: "milk" is a great start, and from there on moving towards "butter" and "cheese". (Ridiculous to use this lactic terminology, but for lack of a better word...) But once you put the nuts in the blender, you can enrich the taste and texture by whatever you want.
At one time I've made a lot of experimental pesto, trying out different herbs and combinations to get the best taste. Well, one direction it took me to, was increasing the nut content (pecans instead of walnuts, but that's just besides the point), until I had a lovely spread. It was kinda like pesto, but a lot thicker, where the herbs were merely for the color and a bit of flavor. The salt, garlic, and olive oil gave the nuts exactly what (I thought) they needed.
Of course, this is all highly subjective, and your girlfriend might be more receptive to the tastes than you, since you don't like walnuts. But maybe they just need the right combination of ingredients! In any case, you seem to have enough to experiment to your heart's content. Have fun!
The pesto thing sure sounds promising.Gotta give that a try.
I didn't really like the butter we made, but other people seemed to like it a lot.
However, I was a huge fan of the other recipe we tried: we covered them with agave syrup, added cinnamon, cocoa powder, almond flakes, pepper and sale, and then roasted them in the over. Yummy. So delicious.
I finished them before I remembered I should have taken a picture and make a post out of it. Guess I'll be collecting more nuts this weekend. 😁
Interesting! It sounds a bit like Christmas taste, but in an exotic way.
Interesting! It sounds a bit like Christmas taste, but in an exotic way.
well, that describes it pretty good, actually 😂
The best use for walnuts that I know of is to make a Dixie Pie with them, although pumpkin bread would be a close second place.
I had to look up what Dixie Pie was, lol. It does look like I may give it a try some time. Thanks for the tip.
Pecan nut pie
Need to look that up. Thanks for the tip.
I am officially jealous! I love walnuts. I have lots of recipes that use them - brandy pudding and paté for starters. Oh and in pesto...
One thing about walnuts, different from other nuts is that they can become rancid and are best stored in their shells.
I also think you can pickle them, but I they might have to be green.
What a fun challenge...🤭
The butter we made was not really my cup of tea, but we decided to roast a bunch, covered with agave syrup, cocoa powder and cinnamon. OMG! So utterly delicious. I finished them all before I remembered to taker a picture for a post. Well, plenty more nuts in the garden, so I'll try getting a post up about the second batch we do.
That sounds delicious!! Pics next time!
yep! Just collected a new batch of nuts. Will be peeling them during the next couple of days, though.... 🤣
Thank you for sharing this amazing post on HIVE!
Your content got selected by our fellow curator @tibfox & you just received a little thank you via an upvote from our non-profit curation initiative!
You will be featured in one of our recurring curation compilations and on our pinterest boards! Both are aiming to offer you a stage to widen your audience within and outside of the DIY scene of hive.
Join the official DIYHub community on HIVE and show us more of your amazing work and feel free to connect with us and other DIYers via our discord server: https://discord.io/diyhub!
If you want to support our goal to motivate other DIY/art/music/homesteading/... creators just delegate to us and earn 100% of your curation rewards!
Stay creative & hive on!
Maybe a pumpkin jam with bits of walnut on it? When people sell that stuff over here and it goes out of stock very fast. 😋
We decided to make butter with the bigger part of the nutes, and the nut-lovers around me said it was delicious. Not a real fan myself.
However, we roasted the leftovers in the oven, covered with agave syrup, cinnamon and cocoa powder. Yummy. They were so good! I could eat those every day. I was planning to do a post about it, but I ate them before I thought of taking a picture, lol.
I don't blame you for that! 😁
https://twitter.com/alluneed2succee/status/1310525734948143104
https://twitter.com/alluneed2succee/status/1310526054562443265
They exist! 😁
I know they do 😂😂
(Un)fortunately, our chicken look like this, so the helmets won't fit them: 🤣
Polish? They look like they already have helmets!! It's just a shame there isn't more padding.
Yeah, it seems they're at least related to Polish. Some sources say it's the same breed, other sources say it's not (don't you just love the internet,😂?), but it looks like their also called 'Old Polish'.
I wish I had that tree in my yard - I eat a lot of walnuts - brain food! Nice to see an overview of your garden - are you out in the country?
It's not really the countryside, but not in the city either. In front of our house, there's a big road with heavy traffic, but the back is all fields and meadows.
Wonderful post matey. You could go with the classic approach at preservation which is to pickle them. I've made butters before but I wasn't over the moon with the finished product. However once shelled and with proper moisture control, and containers they will hold a season with ease. After that you have got a wonderful protein source for things like flap jacks and snack bars... not to mention the myriad of deserts you could make. Great post my friend. :)
Pickling nuts? I need to look that up.
We decided to make butter with them, and the nut-lovers around me said it was delicious. Not a real fan myself.
However, we decided to roast part of them in the oven, covered with agave syrup, cinnamon and cocoa powder. Yummy. They were so good! I could eat those every day. I was planning to do a post about it, but I ate them before I thought of taking a picture, lol.
Well, I'll be collecting some more nuts today, maybe that post will happen a bit later.
Lol. I've done the same with a lot of my harvests both in the garden and with foraging. Get it in the kitchen, make something out of it, then realise after that I could of made a post out of what I had just cooked. I hope you're looking after yourself and your autumn is turning out to be a fun one. It's my favourite time of year with all the harvesting and wild food on offer. I may try your approach listed above with some pecans me thinks. Sounds addictive.
OMG, it really is. The other day, I ate them until I was nauseous. Then realized: I thought I didn't like nuts 😂
Second batch coming up. Will remember to take pics this time