Walnut Harvest

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We are still in the midst of Walnut Season! The eight English walnut trees have produced abundantly. The photos also show what a beautiful fall we have had...still no hard freezes, so the leaves on the trees got to turn every colorful shade and we have enjoyed the streaming golden light everyday. Some of our grandkids have come to help pick up and play in the walnuts and on Halloween they had a brown sugar coated treat to keep the monsters away! At this time of year there are fewer crates drying inside by the woodstove, usually between two and four crates. At the height of the collecting season, there were 3 racks across by 4 racks high by 6 racks deep in our living room...that is a lot of walnuts drying with two fans blowing and the woodstove keeping a steady dry heat. Literally hundreds and hundreds of pounds have been picked, dried, cured, bagged, and shelled! Now we are selling them by the poundage either in the shell or out of the shell. Once they are shelled, it is best to freeze them right away for the optimum freshness. We like to use vacuum packers in pint and quart size bags, but also use freezer bags. We are enjoying the nuts in the kitchen eating them raw, in granola bars, walnut pralines, in soup, plum cake, cranberry-orange-walnut birthday cake, pumpkin or butternut squash casserole, in Thanksgiving stuffing, brown sugar and cinnamon coated, and more! We also love the leafless walnut branches silhouetted against a crisp, cool, clear evening sky~ How do you like your walnuts?

Santa's Packs

Santa's Pack on the farm looks like this! The walnuts that were crated for drying and now packed into mostly red bags and ready for delivery or for cracking! The biggest lumps weigh 50 pounds, the Rogue Valley onion bags weigh 30 pounds, the mid sized red bags weigh 15 pounds, and the little purple sassy bags weigh 5 pounds. Many of the walnuts have already been given out, so this is what remains! They really are decorative don't you think?!

Here are some of the walnuts cleaned out of their shells. They will be chopped up for a butternut casserole. They are full of healthy fats and protein, and especially heart healthy.

Speaking of butternut casserole, here it is! This squash was especially orange and large. It roasted in the oven for about an hour and then was stirred together with eggs, brown sugar, a little milk and baked. Nearing the end of baking time, the decorations were added.

You guessed it! The decorations were thanks to the walnuts! They are mixed with brown sugar and 2 tablespoons of butter and finish off in the oven for the final minutes of baking. This dish can be served as a side to lamb chops or any other meat dish. It is similar in texture to pumpkin pie, but without as much sugar, although it is sweet enough to be quite enjoyable to eat as a dessert.

And while we are eating dessert, we admire our slightly larger living room now that all of the drying crates are packed away and the nuts are snug in the Santa Pack! How is your holiday decorating going?!

Fall Decorations

It's Nuts Around Here!!

Walnut Pickers

There are so many nuts on this farm! We are scrambling to pick them all up, so we brought in reinforcements to help with the harvest. Anna and Aiden were just the help we needed!

The kids were eager and helpful and each chose a colorful bucket to fill. Then the hunt for hiding nuts in the leaves began.

Aiden has his hands full with walnuts. He was such a big helper. When there were 5-7 nuts in his bucket, he would deliver them to Papa's bucket and then return to the work of finding 5 or 6 or 7 more!

Anna was intrigued with finding the tiniest nuts of all, but also managed to fill her whole bucket by counting to 100. You never know how much math is used on the farm!!

Aiden was nearly overworked and took a break on the tire swing. It was the perfect reprieve for the grand finale!

Anna had an amazing genetic connection to her mama and auntie with tortured phrases of "How much longer are we going to do this?" or "Do you really like picking up walnuts, Nana?"...I finally had to ask Anna if Mama or Auntie told her to say those things, as I know I heard them in the past!!

Finally all of the counting and diligence paid off and the time for the grand finale of pouring the buckets of nuts into the crates to dry was here. Obviously, Aiden was impressed!

As soon as the buckets were emptied for drying, our new recruits turned quickly to the barn. I am assuming the walnut collection was all they hoped it would be and they were off for more fun.

Aiden and his pals, Dutchess and Marial watched the little Nigerian Dwarf goats in the pasture. They said a few words, and chased each other at the fence line.

Anna continued with the chores and egg collecting. She loves to find the eggs in the barn in the nesting boxes and in a few surprise places. Production is down at this time of year, so there were only enough eggs to fill four little hands.

The geese overhead signaled it was time for dinner. We call them Honkers, so Aiden called "Honk, Honk, Hhhhhonkers" all the way back to the house.

For dinner, the hard little workers ate cheeseburgers and tater tots. Aiden wanted a 'whowe' cheeseburger and Anna said we should really have tater tots the next time they come to visit for dinner. It was a celebration dinner and the very last tomato from the garden was sliced and eaten on the burgers. Pumpkin cakes were ready for dessert.

The little farm workers were tuckered out and fell fast asleep as visions of sugared walnuts danced in their heads! It was a perfect day to work on the farm~

Fall Gardening

There is so much to do on the farm in the fall. We were so fortunate to have a long, warm, dry October. The apples were late to ripen, but so, so sweet and ready for sauce, drying, and syrup. The walnuts are dropping and dropping like an erratic hail storm and with the nights freezing and temperatures dropping into the 20's, they will begin to fall with great enthusiasm. The summer garden harvest was completed and the squash, pumpkin and some spicy peppers have some time to cure or dry. The winter garden is planted with broccoli, cauliflower, Swiss chard, onions, spinach, cabbage, and bok choy. There was one more row that didn't get included in the picture. Now that the rain has started, we will gather in as many walnuts as we can by the end of the month ~

Nuts!

This is the time of year when farm time meshes with river time. As the rafting season gets busy, so do we. Yesterday after weeding the garden there was a little time to clean and shell the walnuts. We cleaned nearly a 10 pound bag and now they are sugar coated and ready for a river trip. It is summer time and life is good!