Cracking and peeling walnuts has become a(n almost) daily task, in the last month and a half or so and 
and I still have Kilos and Kilos of them to process.
When the man who sold us our land showed us around on what is now our property, he wasn't exaggerating when he told us that the huge, old noce ( walnut tree ) at the edge of our property gifted him 70 Kgs of walnuts, the year before.
We wondered if he was talking about shelled walnuts or not but whatever would be the case, it's a seriously abundant amount.
'cause let's be honest, who can eat 70 Kgs of walnuts per year? Imagine Clare and me eating 35 Kg each ( although I usually eat a bit more than her ). That would be circa 100gs per day.
Now I think of it, we are probably eating that much, these days, but only because it's the time of the year and there's an abundance of walnuts to eat. Not only do they taste amazing... and not just because of the work we have to do before we eat them but also because they come from our own land but they do provide us with a beautiful amount of healthy fats and protein and doing the 'hard', manual, physical labor on our land,we sure need all of that goodness, especially in the colder months of the year.
Here's some pictures...
from our first harvest, a month and a half ago ( late September )...
...to needing a wheelbarrow, in October.
We had fun making walnut butter with Clare's amazing gerson juicer/food processor ( ingredients: olive oil, walnuts, salt and optionally, some black pepper )
The never-ending cracking of the walnuts continues, almost daily. And you know what, it doesn't get boring at all....
And, as an added bonus, the shells are a perfect fire starter for our wood stove. Much needed on these chilly Autumn mornings and evenings, here in the Italian countryside, 650 meters above sea level.
*Now let me end this story with a happy looking Clare, weeks ago, in front of our tent and main walnut tree.
We actually have two smaller, younger walnut trees too that aren't that abundant yet and discovered/uncovered a bunch of baby trees too.
One thing's for sure, we won't have a shortage of walnuts in the future. Happy days! :<)
