Nut Harvest Time

Now that fall is here, it’s nut harvest time…

There is a black walnut tree next to our yard - and its branches hang over our property.

If my father lived here, he’d probably pick up the fallen nuts and roast them. But Terry and I have no idea how to do it. So the squirrels harvest them instead - climbing up the tree and gnawing on the stem of each nut until it drops to the ground with a loud thump. When they land, they look like green tennis balls on the grass.

Terry finds this nut harvesting very annoying - not because the squirrels eat the nuts - but because they make such a mess all over the deck and lawn chairs doing it.

I personally am more annoyed by them burying the nuts in my flower beds and forgetting them. A year or two later, I have to dig up little trees.

I wonder if we should figure out how to use this free nut bounty for ourselves - to eat - as well as to avoid the mess and the weeding. 

I’m sure my father would have. He was raised on a farm in Poland. They were very poor and didn’t waste a thing!