A bit more on the art of gathering walnuts after this morning's harvest here at Struan Farm. Shall I start off by saying it was less than a zen moment? Yesterday on my way to food shop I noticed a mob of feral turkeys munching away under our main walnut tree in the roadside Pet Paddock. Hmmm, not good news. I needed to get back down there to pick up the next wave of walnuts.
This morning I grabbed a bucket and wandered into the paddock. It had rained heavily last night and showers are forecast for the next 2-3 days, so important to get whatever nuts have fallen before weather and turkeys complicate things further.
There were a large number of nuts on the ground, so many that I felt a bit overwhelmed initially. (Remember that we already have six trays drying in the garage.) I thought I was on the home stretch but the walnut tree clearly has other ideas. It was dropping nuts while I scrambled around scooping them up, probably having a good giggle at my expense. My bucket overflowed, so I went into the garden shed and grabbed a big plastic pot for the rest.
Once I'd made it around the tree once or twice I started to calm down. It hadn't started raining yet and there was no sign of the turkeys. They know better. I did manage to start doing my walnut shuffle and change perspectives, yielding 60 or so more nuts. A light rain then started to fall but my job for today was done.
Now to spread them out on newspaper covered seed trays to dry for six weeks. And time for this nutty lady to take a few cleansing breaths and have a cup of tea.
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