Walnuts

Harvesting and preserving your fruit & veg

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PLUMPUDDING
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Excited to find about ten nuts on my 9 year old walnut tree for first time.
How do you know when they are ready to pick? Do they fall off or change colour or is there any other indication?
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peter
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The smooth green outer covering shrivels and goes black, the nut itself becoming visible, to you AND squirrels. :twisted:
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Motherwoman
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I have a Juglans Nigra (black walnut) which fruits well now. I wait for them to drop to the ground, I do a pick up twice a day. You can eat them straight away as 'green walnuts' but the flavour is different to what you'd expect. The first time I had enough to try to keep I searched all over the place for advice and couldn't find any so I took a chance and put them in my dehydrator for 24 hours on the lowest setting which is the same as I use for herb drying. With hindsight it may have been slightly too long and I think 16 hours would have done the job. They did however keep until Christmas and were very nice. They will not keep if you don't dry them in some way. Mine are still tucked into their green husks at the moment.

Last year I didn't have any on the tree but this year there are lots.

Hope this helps.

MW
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FelixLeiter
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There are three walnut trees at the top of my road which are absolutely groaning with nuts. As well as drying you can pickle them — don't ask me how. They're not ready until autumn, when they are shed with the leaves. Very nice smell of lime from the fruits. Be careful, though, because the juice stains. Your tree is quite young for its first fruits. Is it a named variety? Not all walnuts are worthwhile, and growing a tree from a nut can be a bit chancy.
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PLUMPUDDING
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Thanks for the info. The variety is Lara which is supposed to fruit quite early. I'll try to be patient a bit longer but keep an eye out for the squirrels.
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peter
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The green rind is what used to be used for dye. :wink:
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