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go nuts for walnuts ...
Now is the time to make the most of walnuts in their shells. Most of those you see in the shops will have been imported, but in years to come we are likely to see far more home-grown nuts. Changing weather patterns, in particular warmer springs and summers, have seen farmers in this country experimenting with everything from olives and apricots to tea and walnuts. Though walnut trees have been grown in Britain for thousands of years, it is only recently that growers have begun to reap consistent crops of ripe nuts, and as a result more and more are planting walnut orchards.
I only buy walnuts at Christmas, I don't bother with those mixed bags, even as a kid I remember the almonds always being the ones left in the bowl at the end of Christmas, not that we didn't like them, but you could never crack open the blasted shells! We don't just eat walnuts at this time of year, throughout the year my local Waitrose usually sells them in their shells, you just scoop as many as you want into a bag, weigh, and then get a shock at the price!
A few years back I bought this lovely nut bowl from Lakeland, the nutcrackers that came along with it are really good, they have no problem breaking through the shells. I noticed last year Boots were selling something very similar, and this year I saw something similar in Lidl too.
Click on this link to see the health benefits of walnuts.
5 comments:
That's interesting about the walnuts. I wonder if pecans are also beneficial ~ they are my favourite!
Nuts nuts glorious nuts!
I love them ... virtually all of them!
I think all nuts are very good for you ..in moderation of course. My favourites are hazel and brazil nuts but often buy a bag of mixed nuts and dried fruit and eat that as a snack to try and avoid chocolate cravings!
It is just as fattening but healthier ..I hope!
Have a cracking time with those scrummy walnuts.
I have two walnut trees in my garden. One is about 50 feet tall and growing more every year. It's beautiful, but picking up the walnuts when they drop every autumn can be a pain in the #$%. When they first fall they are pretty green inside (and often fall with the green casing around the outside which is sometimes going black and mushy and stains your hands). Last year, we left a lot of them on the ground and we had a raccoon come and eat them each day. A few weeks ago we saw a squirrel running around the branches collecting nuts to store for the winter. I am too lazy to crack them all - we only eat a small percentage - but I like to melt chocolate chips and stir in some chopped walnuts and leave it to set in small blobs. Even the kids will eat them if they're covered in chocolate!
My mom always bought nuts around this time of year too. All of us kids would sit around and crack and eat nuts in front of the TV for hours. Its funny the almonds were the one left in your bowl because they were the first to disappear from ours. We always had those stupid brazil nuts left. I even thought about buying nuts this year. Perhpas I will....
Hi Louise, just been catching up on your posts, can't believe how many there are since I was last here, I feel quite shame-faced! That is just a darling MLA postcard, how lucky you are to have one with a personal meaning.
best wishes,
Lucy x
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