Walnuts

Did you know that one walnut tree produces a lot of walnuts? My sister knows this--she cut down her walnut tree a few years ago! Did you also know that the outer covering--not the shell--gets a little slimy when it's been on the wet ground? And did you know that picking-up the walnuts from the ground is only the beginning of the process? Grandma called last week to see if we wanted the walnuts from her tree. "Sure!" I said, "The kids will think this is awesome!" And they did. (I remember cracking macadamia nuts as a child when I was little--strange how when I was done, there weren't as many nuts as when I started--they were tasty!) We had fun picking-up walnuts and even raced me to see who could get the most. In 1/2 hour we had 4 shopping bags full! Grandma kept saying, "Oh, Julie, I'm sorry, that's a lot of walnuts." I thought again to myself, "It will be a good job for the kids to crack the walnuts open and remove the nuts." Nothing like hard work and the reward of seeing the fruits of your labors! Well, as we all know, life goes on and gets busier and busier, so the bags sat in my garage for a few days. Each time I would see them I began thinking "who would like some walnuts?" I was able to pass one of the largest bags onto a friend who loves to bake with them and isn't afraid of a little hard work--yeah! But the day finally arrived when I knew we must take care of the walnuts. So we went outside (smart call to go outside, BTW) one beautiful afternoon last week with the hammer and a cutting board and went for it. My kids helped and soon were competing to see who could pull out the nut completely in tact. It was a lot of fun, but pretty back breaking--I should have found a place to sit. We even had some neighbor friends join in the fun. So now that the walnuts are shelled, washed, dried, and bagged what do I do with all these walnuts that I couldn't give away? I found a solution--candied walnuts! I'm saving some for baking, but Jeff gets cankers from walnuts! Oh well! Fun memories for our journey!