Don't Let Them Scare You...

For years I have been intimidated by something in my back yard - our BIG black walnut tree.  I've dealt with it's juglone making my plants not grow, I've cleaned up the walnuts choking my mower and turning my ankles, and I have enjoyed it's shade.

But I have never quite gotten up the gumption to process those walnuts and actually eat them.

"It's tough work," they said.
"It's really dirty and will stain everything," they said.
"You will need to run over them with your car to get into them," they said.

("they" being friends, blogs, books, websites, etc...)

Well - last spring I made a promise to my nephew.  We were sitting under the tree in June and observing the squirrels and birds, and numerous nuts hanging from every branch.

"What do they taste like?" he asked me.
 Well, I, uh, I, uh.... "I don't know," I had to answer.

Me - the raspberry harvesting, potato growing, rhubarb raising, flower cultivating Aunt... I didn't know -and they were RIGHT THERE!!!

For 10 years -they have been RIGHT THERE!

So I promised him I would process some and bring them to his house for Thanskgiving.

So today, that is what I did.  I dove into the pile of nuts that the Munchkin has been picking up each weekend (he gets paid by the bucket -Friday we picked up 25.5 buckets... plus 23.5 in our neighbors yard...)

I didn't need the car - my hands worked just fine!
I didn't get all dirty - gloves took care of 90 % of it.
I DID get tired - but that was from sitting and leaning forward in a chair designed to be reclined in.

And now I have 5 gallons of nuts drying in my side yard - hopefully protected from the squirrels.  They will be moved to the basement later today - and hulled in a few weeks.

Will I do it again?  Depends on how they taste.  But now I know that it is not so scary!