[sunshineband]

I was lucky enough to come across a walnut tree surrounded by fallen fruit (Portchester Castle common ground) so gathered up a bagful

I have now removed the thick green husks, dying my thumb bright yellow in the process as my rubber gloves had a tiny hole in them  and scrubbed off as much of the spongy and stringy bits left as I can.

The somewhat lumpy nuts are now spread out on newspaper drying, and instruction say to leave them for tow to three weeks in the sunshine. Yeah, right!! They are on my desk indoors instead.

Question is this:  How do I know when they are dry enough to store? Do the shells go light like the ones you buy in the shops?

Any help will be gratefully appreciated 

Here is a picture now too 

[tosca100]

Have you cracked a couple to see if they are worth keeping? I ask as the ones that fall still in their jackets here are often not too good inside. Most of them fall naked when the season gets going and those are the ones I would store. Saying that, over here the harvest has been affected by the weather and on cracking some nuts I found a lot of them had black bits and a maggot in them, so have shelled them all and frozen the good ones, keeping the dodgy ones for the chickens. I don't see the point of trying to store nuts which might not be perfect as there is no way of knowing how many you have. I am a (near) veggie so use a lot.

[sunshineband]

Thanks for the advice Tosca. They were blown off the tree in  60 mph gale, and most had blackish brown inside them where the husk flesh met the shell, which was what it said in the article I read was a sign of being ripe.

I did hammer one open at the time --- hilarious with me crouching on the edge of the waves hitting one with very large stone, getting quite wet. It was the only place that had somewhere hard to set it on to give it  a good whack. There was a nut inside, but it was still attached to the inside of the shell.

I have put them all in water and they all sank, which I hope is a sign there is a nut inside at least.

I only have the ones in the photo as that is all I could fit in my bag with their husks on.

Never thought they might have maggots in them........ 

[tosca100]

They are 'wet' then and will loosen in the shell as they start to dry out. They are really nice and mild at that stage, sort of creamy. I am lucky to be able to eat them at every stage as our tree is large.

[sunshineband]

Thanks for the reassurance Tosca. If this all works out I shall be visiting the same tree again next year, with larger bags 

Are your Black walnuts or English walnuts? These are very round, whilst the ones I buy are more egg shaped

[tosca100]

English I think, the 'meat' really fills the nut. Last year the nut shells were round and quite knobbly, this year smoother and oval, so I would say that it depends on the weather. Last spring was hot and dry, this year unusually humid and cooler.

One of my favourite dishes with early walnuts is with pasta. Very simply sweated onion and garlic, lemon zest and bltzed walnuts, with either masses of parsley or finely shredded chard or spinach, salt and pepper. Simple and delicious, no need for sauce, just don't drain the pasta too much. I regularly make walnut and cheese sausages in batches and freeze them too.

[LotuSeed]

There's a walnut tree at the stables. I'm suddenly feel the urge to go gather some, and I don't even like walnuts  Can they be picked directly from the tree as long as they're yellow/green? The tree gas started dropping its leaves and there are a fair few nuts still hanging on.

[Beetroot Queen]

Thank you for the pic, I am a nut idiot so now I know what to avoid with florence is the apple looking fruit what they come in. 

[Swing Swang]

I am a nut idiot

Or even a nut nut

[sunshineband]

There's a walnut tree at the stables. I'm suddenly feel the urge to go gather some, and I don't even like walnuts  Can they be picked directly from the tree as long as they're yellow/green? The tree gas started dropping its leaves and there are a fair few nuts still hanging on.

The guide to whether the nut is ripe or not inside is that you can make a dent in the green outer case with your finger --push quite hard!

Any that fall on the ground will show black where they break open.

Mind your fingers as that stuff from the cases stains really really badly 

Go for it -- great seasonal gift if you can get them out 

Thanks for the recipe tips there Tosca. I think I should have enough for a couple of meals for two of us. Love the sound of that pasta