A couple of weeks ago, John had been on one of his walks and came back with several of these walnuts (we were at another park then). He laid them out on the picnic table outside of the rig to dry.
For those not knowing about black walnuts. They have a different taste (really good) then regular walnuts and are a lot more expensive, that is when you can find them in the market.
The walnut trees need the cold winters to produce their fruit. The nuts fall from these huge trees, looking a lot like green lemons; they smell like them also! They are also the same size of lemons.
The nuts must dry to get them out of their shells. They come straight from the tree with a coat on. This green outer coating is like the skin on citrus fruit. It is approximately the thickness of the peel of a naval orange, and it must be taken off before the nut shell proper can be seen. This happens after the green skin softens and turns black, at that time it is easy to tear the blackened area of the nut off. After that the nut must continue to dry so that it will shrink and be easier to remove from the shell.
As I was saying, John laid his walnuts (in their green coats, some already black and soft, some still green) onto the table outside. The next day he plays with them, repositioning them, rubbing off the dark coat on some; in general just admiring his cache.
A couple of days later, he notices that all of the nuts are gone, with just the black leavings left on the table. He had been robbed!
After noticing that they were gone, he asks me if I had taken his nuts! Of course, I had not, but keeping a straight face, I mention to him that I had noticed gray squirrels scampering around the trees that were close behind us and on the green grass areas near us.
It was funny, he had provided a ready source of nuts for the squirrels; and they were quick to take advantage of the situation! He, of course, didn’t see the humor in it. Poor guy, and he was so looking forward to eating those nuts.
I am sorry that I didn’t think to take a picture of those nuts lying on the table. I could have shown them to you. Oh well.
The Best of Times 