What is your favorite summer cool down?

My body is so lazy , it doesn't work to digest fat , it just stores it in hips , belly , rear , Etc !
Hope you got a laugh for today . lol

Air conditioned room...then iced tea. I could not survive the heat without iced tea!

My sister in law -who lives down Mississippi; last year sent me through the mail a huge box of pecans.
She said they had a very good year.
We ate them -all winter; and maybe they tasted better than anything I bought from the store because it was from her - or maybe theyactually were better than anything I could buy.

I planted me two Missiouri pecan trees, everyone tells me they don't get to be big trees up here - and neither does the pecans.

Which makes me glad I live in the United States that has shipping.

But I have 10 quarts of shelled black walnuts in my freezer
There are actually some people that don't like them ?????? My husband!!!! He says they are bitter - I say it is his Californ-I-A raising showing.

There is nothing this side of heaven better than black walnuts and fudge or brownies!

My husband's suggestion for keeping cool - is to wear sunglasses at all times - and fool the brain.

But there is noth

for Digger and anyone else interested, this is the link http://www.mtbest.net/chest_fridge.html

In our farm bulletin , we have b . walnut shelled meats for sale by several people . I don't remember how cheap , but cheaper than I can mess with them . I've been threating to buy some , haven't gotten around to it , and now I guess I'd better .
I'm with you, Pod , all day , sore fingers and finally enough to sprinkle on one small dish of ice cream .
That site about freezer to fridg is interesting . I'd have to go with the kit , ready to plug in tho , I don't mess with electricity.Besides , it hurts my brain to read all those graphs .

Podster
Hammer is better than any nut cracker you can buy . I know - I have purchased several very expensive ones, the hammer is sill the best. .
Crack the walnut on it's top/bottom pointed edge. It splits into four sections and then a small tap ln top of each section - will get that opened up into a whole kernal.

I have wasted my time with small walnuts (I did at first) we have one that produces tons and tons in our fence row and it was not worth my time, meats were very small..
I have orderd two from a local grower whose variety produces huge walnuts with thinner shells- last year they produced 15 walnuts for the first time - not bad for just five years growth.

My tather's neighbor has on wonderful walnut tree and since it was getting some age on it and mistletoe was weakeining it; he had ordered some from a famous catalog company- they matured and he found he was not pleased with their variety - so I went with the local grower instead.

On my fahter's farm - down in the hollow - in the wood - that walnut tree from my neighbor must have produced babies over the years, and they are all grown up. For my father has has really good walnut trees that produce very nice sized walnuts.

You must take the attitude of shelling - black walnuts like you do quilting.
My mother was a great quilter - I love quilts but nope - I can't stand it.She tells me I am too much of a hurry.
So never get in any hurry - it is the journey - not the end product.
But on pretty fall days - I take my hubby and son out in the truck to the edge of the woods and gather them - it is always fun.
I bring them home and put them in the yard and stomp and twist and with gloves get the husk off - not as much fun - but I take it short spurts. Then I let them dry . I put them in buckets and put them down in the basement untill about early August - when ever I have finished the corn/blackberries/strawberries - well you know the harvest/freezing and canning has slowed down-

That is when I get up in the morning with my cup of coffee go out on the back porch with a small bag of them and crack out a few and put them in freezer bags.
I did that this morning and barely got the shells swept up before it rained on me.
It is a zen moment - and I don't do it for hours- just when ever like a quilt.
This summer has been more difficult though because my husband is sick and we need a better fence - more than just an electric fence in one area - because the bull got out there this spring . So I am having to spend those mornings digging post holes. Again a zen moment - one post hole at a time.

Digger:
An elderly lady in her 80s from our church ; cracks them out and gets about 15 dollars a quart.

Liquid , what would be wrong with me buying three qts and her shipping in a small flat rate box from the P O ? I would , of course , pay the postage .Should be able to get three qts in a small box easy .Or four qts if it would hold that much .

I will ask her for you, if you wish.
I might sell you some, if you wish?
But gosh- pecans so good !
Geesh- that would be 60 dollars for four quarts of black walnuts. That is a lot of money for some nuts even if they are the best in the world- and heee, heee, heee -- a tough nut to crack! (It was the black walnut for wince that clich'e came from; I bet money on it )
Plus 5 dollars for shipping - if not 7-- they have weight to them. Flat rate; if they fit into the box even! .
I give mine as gifts for Christmas to several people on my list and the post office is high.

What get's my dander up is a few seed companies are charging five-ten dollars for shipping packets of seeds, in an envelope!

Hmmm, I am curious - does black walnuts grow in the south? I have never thought about it before?.

Yep ~ there are black walnut trees here. A quart of black walnuts would last me a while. The taste is strong enough that it doesn't take much to give a cake or cookie a wonderful flavor. And pecans I love ~ they are more common here.

BTW, thanks for the cracking tough nuts instructions. LOL A hammer was what I resorted to also. But oh how sore my fingers were when I was finished. Good thought to do a little at a time. I did that with a brick sidewalk, it only took 6 months. Never thought of it as zen though. 8 )

The flat rate box doesn't have to be weighed. Postage can be prepaid and it can be shipped from a rural route mail box without even making a trip to town. We do that alot and I love it.

On the freezer conversion, I agree. I would have to buy the prefab one also. I keep visualizing that 15 cu ft freezer full of watermelons chilling in wait for me. 8 )

You are welcome podster;
Thanks for having the patience to read it.

And I bet you are amazed at yourself even to this day and proud - of that brick sidewalk!
Six months is nothing when you think about it - and it makes the memory of the job not so painful!
At least I hope not! I try not to have too painful memories of too many big jobs.

I find I sort of obssess over my stuff to the point of being boring. Sorry about that ; but it amazes me that . just how many people there are in the world that may not have invented the atomic bomb or gone to the moon, but never the less has done some important work like making better blackberry culitvars, or hazelnuts, or pear trees, and esp walnut trees. I just would go out in the woods and gather them without much thought about cultivars untill I ran across that one in our fence row - and found they were indeed tough nut to crack and tiny meats at that. -and not all black walnuts are created equal- !

My father's neighbor said the ones he orderd were Thomas from Starks came out of Pennslyvannia, they were thinned shelled but not all that big and nice as his old tree - but he did not know the name of that culitvar- he had sat it out when he was a very young man. It has produced some very nice babies though, in my father's woods..

I ordered my two black walnuts to go on my farm from a rather famous Kentucky nut tree farm. They are grafted, even!


SAUBER 1 OH. 1970. Large nut with light colored high quality kernel, about 39%. Nut separates clean from the outer hull. Excellent production, about 20-25 nuts per pound. It produced for me for the first time this year. There is one branch that has dropped down to the ground it is so heavy and the walnuts are a look'in big

The other one is


THOMAS MYERS MO. 1980. Very large nut (20 lb.), 38% kernel, cracks out easily, thin shell. Bears early, annually, and heavily. Late vegetating. Anthracnose resistant. Best Ohio Valley and Southern variety. It produced for me last year the 15 walnuts- and though few and young - they were big nuts and lot of meat in them.

They better hurry up and produce because I am getting to the age that I realize I am not going to live forever. I sure thought up untill a few years ago that I was!





To keep from having sore fingers -- when I use to crack them in the fall of the year for hours at a time -I had a black/flat/rubber strip that came from one of those elastic ties - you know if you are hauling something small and want to hold it down.

Also I used the rubber strip from some kind of wrench my husband wanted real bad, after seeing it advertised on television - for opening jars and such .

I just wrap them around the nut and the rubber holds the nut instead of my fingers.

Curious about your Walnuts. Talking to my sister-in-law in Mississippi it seems all things down there are bigger down south.
.

All all walnut trees equal out there?
All about the same size?
I was surprised at how they vary here in Kentucky.
I always thought a black walnut tree was like any other untill I ran across this one in our fence row.
My father's neighbor said the ones he orderd were Thomas from Starks, and they were not anything close to as good as the one he set out years ago - but he did not know the name of that culitvar. It has produced some very nice babies though.

I ordered my two from a rather famous Kentucky nut tree farm. They are grafted, even!

.

SAUBER 1 OH. 1970. Large nut with light colored high quality kernel, about 39%. Nut separates clean from the outer hull. Excellent production, about 20-25 nuts per pound.


THOMAS MYERS MO. 1980. Very large nut (20 lb.), 38% kernel, cracks out easily, thin shell. Bears early, annually, and heavily. Late vegetating. Anthracnose resistant. Best Ohio Valley and Southern variety.




I guess I always thought walnuts - go out and gather in the woods, but people in the past have put some work into growing some good cultivars.
I just never appeciate just how many people there are in the world that may not have invented the atomic bomb or gone to the moon but never the less has done some important work like making better walnut trees. .




I m

Great idea to use the rubber strap wrench when cracking them. I actually have one in my own tool box which DH is forbidden to meddle in. Guess necessity is the mother of invention. Great idea ~ thank you!

Opps Podstere!
So sorry, I couldn't believe my long thread.Wow!
I had to look to see what I had written.
Oh, dear
I was editing, pasting and copying and forgot to delete a lot at the bottom, so sorry! I should have edited myself a lot more.
I also noticed we sat the tree as opposed to set the tree.
But good luck on the cracking; it will do you good - as you can tell - from my last post just how good it has done my mentaliity. : ).
or
You could just take up quilting both are just as hard on the arthritis of the hands.
- but quiltiing won't let you be able to claim the 101 uses for your rubber strap wrench!

.

Make that 1001 uses ~ just like krazy glue. lol

No to the quilting. I love it but my kitties do too. There would be too much help. Everybody avoids me when bricklaying. 8 )

I have a kid and two grandkids that I would share with . Pecans ? I could use up three gallons, packed full, of them each year . Pies , in salads , candies and roasted to snack on . My ddil makes trail mix with fruit and nuts for my son to take to work .
My nut cracker is metal and you lay the nut in it , pull a lever .
Are you talking about black walnuts or English walnuts ? We have a lot of native black walnut trees . I didn't know you could buy grafted black walnuts .
60 dollars isn't that much when you consider labor, and they freeze well and you have them on hand when needed .
If you want to make arrangements ,Liquid , d-mail me , I'll give you my number and give me yours , I'll call you and talk about when they can ship and all the particulars .

Podster;
Brick laying is hard on those hands too.
Black wlanuts trees are what I was talking about that were grafted.I can see the graft still too - even though they are five years old. When I first planted them it started sprouting out beneath the graft and I had to strip them off to save the graft.

Digger;
Yes they sell grafted "Black" walnut trees.
But mine are still very young and just beginning to produce - I still am getting mine out of my father's woods and refuse to touch that one in our fence row - ever again - that is however; where I got most of the quarts I have frozen right now - very small kernals. I have given- and will give all my bigger kernals away for Christmas this year. -- I am ahead on that though---

I have never sold any before.
I have 10 gallon still in their shell in my basement; I am just now starting to work on , I don't know how many quarts it will make? And if I needed more well - walnuts around here won't start dropping untill mid to late Sept.

Tell you what - Let me work on this 10 gallons and see how much they will yield and I will get in touch with you then? And because of the fence I am having to work on I might be a little slower too.
D mail - I have never done that before. I click on your name or something - I figure it out.

-

I leave here the first of Oct for six months . Be back in April . We can still stay in touch . If you see there aren't enough , the neighbor can make up the difference , or I can order local .