Walnut harvest 2011

45 pounds of dried walnuts ready to be used.  Three times more than the 2010 harvest.

I found a recipe for Walnut Candy and made several batches.  My shelling station in the garage.  I was able to shell 2 pounds of walnuts in 20 minutes, the goal being as many perfect halves as possible.  If you hit the pointy end of the walnut just right, getting perfect halves is easy, but a soft hit can also mean the walnut shell will pinch the fingers holding it.  2 lbs yielded 1 lb of nuts.

The walnuts bake for 20 minutes in a sugar, cinnamon, brandy, orange juice mixture.

1 lb of halves made 1 lb 13 oz of candied pieces.  They're terribly addictive.

If I was going to be here much longer, I would have used the shells and husks to boil up some walnut ink.  Maybe next year.

The most recently-planted walnut trees went in the ground last March.  In the last 8 months they doubled in height.  The blue ribbon marks 5' 10" - Justin's height.  If it weren't for his work schedule this week, he'd be standing there.

The fork in the branch was last year's cut.  Justin will prune these trees back by half this year's growth but keep the upward growth going.  One year from now, he'll begin choosing the lateral branches.