Have your nuts dropped?

[RogerS]

Walnuts, dear boy, walnuts. What did you think I meant ?

Reading up you're supposed to wait until they start splitting and dropping.....just wondered when that was likely to happen...would be good to get some this year instead of the bloody tree rats.

 

[dickm]

yes, wait till they drop (said in a squeaky voice ). The walnuts on our tree in Milton Keynes usually hung on until October at the earliest and the tree rats didn't seem interested (unlike their devastation of the hazel nuts).
Or if you want to be sure of getting something, you can try picking them early and pickling them whole; to me, they taste pretty disgusting like that, but better than nothing!

 

[CHJ]

Pickling has to be done in the late spring early summer as soon as nut has formed and before shell has started to turn woody.
Re: harvesting, we always left them on the tree until outer husks started to split.

 

[RogerS]

Thanks for the update, chaps. Spoke to soon re not seeing any tree rats this year. There is one part way down our track after the hazelnuts.

And there was one this morning after the walnuts. Then he had a conversation with Mr 0.22 :twisted:

 

[dickm]

Thanks for the update, chaps. Spoke to soon re not seeing any tree rats this year. There is one part way down our track after the hazelnuts.

And there was one this morning after the walnuts. Then he had a conversation with Mr 0.22 :twisted:

On which topic, it's good to see that the grey squirrel control initiative in Scotland, together with the late spring and hardish spells in the winter, mean that numbers of greys are well down and reds have recovered dramatically. Long may it continue.

 

[RogerS]

Thanks for the update, chaps. Spoke to soon re not seeing any tree rats this year. There is one part way down our track after the hazelnuts.

And there was one this morning after the walnuts. Then he had a conversation with Mr 0.22 :twisted:

And another one this morning. Turned out to be a rather well-endowed male.

Walnuts coming along a treat...really good to see the whole life-cycle and splitting nicely.

 

[RogerS]

Four squirrels down although my kill rate of one per bullet has dropped. There is a fifth one (at least) as yet unscathed. But I have beaten the little buggers this year and have a good crop of walnuts which I am currently air-drying.

One question. I opened one to have a look/taste. I notice that, compared to shop bought ones, the actual nut (the bit you eat) doesn't have that brown membrane. Also tasting the walnut it seems a bit bitter cf. shop ones. Is this because they are still too 'green' as it were and need to be left for a while? if so, for how long?

 

[dickm]

Four squirrels down although my kill rate of one per bullet has dropped. There is a fifth one (at least) as yet unscathed. But I have beaten the little buggers this year and have a good crop of walnuts which I am currently air-drying.

One question. I opened one to have a look/taste. I notice that, compared to shop bought ones, the actual nut (the bit you eat) doesn't have that brown membrane. Also tasting the walnut it seems a bit bitter cf. shop ones. Is this because they are still too 'green' as it were and need to be left for a while? if so, for how long?

Keep up the good work on the tree rat front!
Taste of the nuts definitely suggests under-ripe. Did you wait till they fell? Our MK ones were usually ripe to taste when they fell, but some were still bitter and needed to be left for a few weeks. Just make sure there is plenty of air circulation around the nuts, to prevent any danger of fungus. If you do get fungus, it should only be on the outside of the shells, but it's better not to take the risk.

 

[graduate_owner]

And I thought you were talking about galvanised M12 nuts.

K