Nut Cases

Anyone who has planted a couple of bean seeds, and then watched in agony for them to grow into plants and then to produce succulent juicy green pods, to pick them dew-fresh and chew their crunchy produce right there in your very own garden, will know what I am talking about.

There’s a bit of inner excitement, of satisfaction, that your sweat and tears and the talking to the tardy non-cooperative plants, when the harvest time dawns. Naturally, everyone is a bit hasty at trying to pick the crop – patience comes with experience, but each fruiting season brings its own circumstances.

I, too, am in this stage of virgin gardener. Some of the seeds which I have planted are “looking good”, some are not so good, but, above all else, I am convinced that I have the healthiest most prolific weeds in the whole of the valley – I have treated them rough and tough – used the language of sailors, denied them even the smallest dose of water, even stooped so low as to place nasty voodoo curses on them.

But weeds are survivors.

Currently, the majority of the Chartwell harvest is derived from the fruit trees which were inherited from previous owners of the property as part of the purchase of No 53. (You may have heard the lyrics to a well-known song “Number fifty-three, the house with the Chestnut tree…”) I have blogged a couple of the harvests – peach, quince, plum. There have been a couple of varieties of apples and of pears, which have not performed as anticipated.

However, the two trees which are perhaps not so common-or-garden, which are present are (a) the chestnut in the New Fence fruit row and (b) the walnut in the Secret Garden. I have previously reported on both of these in earlier blogs. But possibly of further interest may be:

(a) Numero Uno nut case:

 
The fruit being produced by the pods on the Chestnut Tree are (pictured above) infertile, shrunken, dried out and occurring in groups of three. They consist of the typical leathery outer shell and no flesh at all inside; while below, we have encountered a strange phenomenon – from the very same (apparently infertile) tree, a few pods have been producing proper flesh-bearing fruit (pictured below). I have tried to find out more about this situation, without much success. Perhaps we can monitor the tree and pollination more carefully next season? 

(b) Numero Duo nut case:

This covers the fruit of the Walnut. Here, we have had no real harvesting problems. However, the biodiversity in the Secret Garden is giving grief: in the shape and form of a marauding Possum who frequents the tree every night without fail. This Australian brushtail possum (Trichosurus vulpecula), which, according to the literature, does not have very strong jaws. However, I have my suspicions, because every morning there is a whole bunch of freshly cracked open walnut shells, smashed opened in a way that no human would use. The possum evidently does not have a sharp knife with a point.

(Above): As the nut-gathering season progresses and now starts nearing its end, the possum is beginning to get the lion’s share each evening. A few weeks ago, each morning, I could collect five to ten good condition nuts for ourselves and there would be, say the remains of four which had been eaten under cover of darkness. Today there were only three for us, and the possum’s “empties” numbered four!  

One for them, three for me…  One for them,….

Going Nuts

After the disappointment of discovering that the bountiful chestnut tree was laden to capacity with sterile and shrivelled fruit, it was an extra pleasant surprise to encounter the start of what appears to be a reasonably good 2013/14 crop of walnuts from our walnut tree, whose fruit have started to mature quite quickly.

From early childhood, we only knew walnuts as part of the Christmas fare, once a year when packets of mixed nuts were bought and served as festive snacks. Occasionally, one would buy the odd packet for inclusion in trifles and selected baking.

Although Bianca did not keep an accurate record of the 2012/13 walnut delivery, she recalls that there was quite a bit of eating that took place during the harvesting and preparation processes, and that “a number” of bags of nuts were stored in the deep freeze – if fact, as evidence, the last bag is still preserved there!

(Above): The walnut tree, centre of left, with the light green leaves is located in a good sunny spot  in the Secret Garden. It does not lend itself to any sort of climbing, so you need a stout pole with a hook to gently shake the upper branches. Then mind you head, or a hard nut might land on your nut.

(Above): Spot the Walnuts.  Ripe fruit which is fully mature or part of a windfall on the ground among the leaves are not so easy to detect when one is visually challenged. I tried to find errant nuts, wearing my reading glasses and crouched over like the Hunchback of Notre Dame, but still failed to see some of them – luckily, we’ve got younger family members who can spot a needle in a haystack. Needless to say that we’re not searching for needles.

(Above): In the past, I have not been exposed to walnut trees. This out of focus –apologies – photo, shows the stages of development of the walnut. On the tree, a dark green berry starts swelling and changing colour first to a lighter shade (1) and then a leathery brown (2), which pops open and expels the nut in a textured brown husk (3)

(Above): Bianca and Brynn arrived from a trip to the Secret Garden, with a basketful of peaches and walnuts.

(Above): The first step of the treatment was to clean and disinfect the husks before opening. You can never tell which dog has done what on top of the nuts, or perhaps the possums have been there spreading their germs. So, we scrub and rinse in clean water containing a dash of bleach. All the black afterbirth “hair” gets removed from the husks, hence the dark colour of the water.

(Above): The cleaned and towel-dried fruit ready for the oven, are allowed to air dry for a while.

(Above): The nuts are spread out on a baking tray in a single layer to dry and toast evenly in the oven for 10 to 15 minutes. This minimises any bitterness which may be present. The nuts can also be shelled and then roasted in the oven or toasted in a frying pan on the stove top.

(Above): The first crop of this year’s harvest yielded a quarter kilo for freezing. The rest has been consumed by the nut-workers!