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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.