Live, Love & Learn: Are You Nuts!!!!

I've always wanted to have nut trees, but I've always been put off by people saying they can take anywhere from 3 to 10 years to produce their fruit ... or should I say nuts. Although there is a 3 to 10 years statement in there somewhere, I usually focus on the 10 years, think that's crazy, then completely tune right out of the idea, until of course I'm at the local supermarket and see how much I have to pay for my walnuts, hazelnuts and almonds for my homemade granola. It's then, that I remember my idea of wanting my own nut trees and hear the 10 years again and again ... and again.

You can only imagine how excited I was when roaming the Ponderosa with the old owners just prior to moving in, when I spotted the walnut tree. In fact I was that excited I think I screamed "IS THAT A WALNUT TREE? Julie (the past owner) said "oh yes, that's a walnut tree and has produced a lovely crop for us every year". And on that reply I proceeded to talk about how I've always wanted to have my own nut trees and how excited I was that I don't have to wait for the dreaded 10 years, bla, bla, bla, bla, bla, bla, bla!!!

Fair to say Julie was a little puzzled by my dribble drabble and there was a small silence before she proceeded to say "well if that makes you happy, you'll be pleased to know on the other side of this paddock is a line of hazelnut trees". To cut a very long story short I nearly pee'd my pants at hearing those words :-)

I was told that hazelnut and walnut trees can be harvested in autumn so out came my handy dandy scriptures "The Tui NZ Fruit Garden" book to confirm this. Late summer to early autumn was the timing for the hazelnuts it said, so off I went with my husband one afternoon in late March (early autumn) to gauge how the nuts were developing, both without any understanding of what to expect. My excitement turned to disappointment very quickly when I learnt that we were too late. The row of hazelnut trees had already produced their crop and the wild critters of the land had feasted on the lot :-( .. "Oh well" said my husband, "we will need to take note for next year and come over the check on a regular basis". "Grrrrr!!!!", he was right, but the thought of me having to shop at the supermarket for the next 12 months for my hazelnuts was a little hard to swallow.

The walnut tree is much closer to the homestead and is grown with one side in the paddock and the other in the home garden. I was determined to ensure we had some type of harvest off this tree. Mid to late autumn was the harvesting timing from the "Tui Scriptures" and when one nut drops, all nuts should be harvested. So one day when I had finished taking cuttings from my camellias, roses and lavender plants, and during a visit from my parents we sat under the walnut tree discussing life's stories over a nice cup of tea when my mother (who just so happens to LOVE LOVE LOVE nuts) said "you're walnuts can be harvested, they have fallen off the tree". With that note, my husband picked up the nuts that had fallen into the garden side, I peeled them ... and my mother attempted to crack some open to have a taste. They tasted delicious!!! (even when my mother has no talent what so ever in ensuring the nut comes out whole). Once we had finished that lot of nuts, we concluded they needed to be dried out before shelling them further. We still needed to pick up the nuts from the other side of the tree (paddock side) and I thought, I'll get that done tomorrow as daylight was drawing to a close.

I went to bed happy that we had harvested some of our walnuts and wondered how many nuts we would need to harvest the next day. I awoke the next morning discussing the harvest with my husband as we prepared our breakfast. On a nice sunny morning, we take our breakfast out onto the verandah that overlooks our paddocks and you can see the walnut tree as well. The sun is always welcoming and I could sit and watch the view for hours as it's quite relaxing and therapeutic. On this particular sunny morning however, we discovered the neighbouring farmer had placed his cows in our paddock early that morning and the cows were eating all the walnuts on the ground :-(

I was gutted!!! Gutted that we weren't able to gauge the full crop from the walnut tree, but happy that we had at least harvested some nuts the day prior.

Learning's from this experience? We need to ensure that the cows and critters don't get next years crop.