Walnuts & Wooden Rain

Who can identify all of the tasty-looking Autumnal treats on the above tray? This is a selection of the items that I took along for my recent talk to the Highfield Women's Institute and, between them, they were able to identify all.

We have been focusing on gathering Walnuts recently, the green hulls have been splitting open and ejecting the nuts, like a delightful wooden rain. The children and I cycle about the neighbourhood harvesting them.

We can gather a surprising amount and add them to our bursting hazelnut hoard. The nuts will keep for a good few months if kept well ventilated and dry and we make all kinds of delicious things from them throughout the Winter/Spring months.

I have also recently gathered my first Chestnuts of the year, from an early shedding tree, near where I work. It is not really time for them to fall yet but seasonal variations are always to be expected.

My Cider has begun fermenting, it seems to be getting pretty over-enthusiastic and erupting through the bubblers in curious volcanic-looking sculptures in the kitchen.

Don't forget to put the Urbane Forager book on your Xmas present lists!

Autumn in the Allotment

Last week, we thought we ought to visit the allotment to see if any autumnal produce was coming through.

The raspberries (safe in the rustic fruit cage) were bearing fruit. Nothing in the world tastes as good as a freshly picked ripe raspberry.

The rampant squash patch was still looking pretty productive but some of the large leaves looked as if the cold nights had scorched them.

I picked out any courgettes and squash that looked big enough to cook and realised that the substantial squash that I had picked previously was actually a colossal courgette! When we got home the head chef cooked up a tasty squash-based risotto.

This week we popped down to mop up any survivors and on the way back we zipped over to our favourite walnut tree; we were somewhat unprepared, so we had to use spare hats to gather them in.

On our return, we proudly displayed; two hats full of walnuts, two courgettes, a few big raspberries, two chestnuts and a solitary medlar, picked off a tree in the university that I had rattling around in my pocket.

I had been puzzling about how to store walnuts and, in a moment of inspiration, realised that I could upcycle the net bags that oranges come in...

Chestnutcases

Furry Tentacles

You may have noticed recently, the wonderful, furry, tentacle like flowers adorning Sweet Chestnut trees in the summer.

A Compact Chestnut Tree Flowering In July

They have now turned into the familiar spiky nut cases, although they will not be ripe for a month or so yet.

Scientifically Proven to be One of The Most Prickly Things Known To Man

While we are on the subject of Nutcases...

I found this following little nugget on the internet regarding the "homoeopathic uses" for the flowers of the Sweet Chestnut…

“The flower essence

Sweet chestnut is the remedy for those who feel so stressed, even tortured, that they have reached the limits of their endurance and feel in a state of utter despair. The mind and the body are completely exhausted from uncomplainingly fighting difficulties, cither mental or physical, until a sense of hopeless­ness and complete darkness sets in. In this ‘dark night of the soul’ sufferers may come face to face with themselves and this may prove the catalyst for entering a new stage in life.

The intensity of suffering may push us on to the threshold of inner transformation, and to another level of consciousness. Sweet chestnut helps during such crises in our lives; it enhances the process of transformation that is possible in such a state of despair and helps to prevent us from simply going to pieces and deriving little or no benefit from the experience.”

Why, Thank you - Internet, for supplying us with such appalling English and so much drivel…

We All Know What We Do With These...

You will be pleased to hear that the Urbane Forager will be avoiding this kind of gibberish; and when they duly arrive around October, we will be roasting our chestnuts over an open fire in the traditional way.

That's Better!
Don't Forget To Slit Them First Though

Incidentally, did you know that the Greeks, apparently, call chestnuts Zeus’s Acorns?