Like a squirrel, I've stashed away a lot of foraged nuts. Now it's time to enjoy them! Come into my post and see my nutty plate of nuts for the Steemit Iron Chef contest.

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Going Through My Nuts

Let's take stock of my stash of my nuts! Most are foraged, but I have one kind from here on the homestead, too.

I've been waiting for a good reason to see what's inside these Shellbark Hickory Nuts. I found them on the university campus in Corvallis, Oregon, and stuffed them in my laptop briefcase, lol. These nuts are so, so hard. It takes a vice to crack them open! But look at the size of those nut kernels inside!

Top: Hazelnut shrubs are almost invasive in Oregon's Willamette Valley. I pick up their nuts whenever I find them. Many on the ground are empty - the squirrels start eating the good nuts while they are still green! I don't stand a chance! Bottom: At least I have a lot of English Walnuts from a tree in my yard.

Top: The acorns came from a big, old English Oak tree in a schoolyard. They have big nutmeats with less tannin than many other kinds of acorns. I dry them in the shell to store for later use. Bottom: Gingko nuts from street trees in an older part of town. I made a DTube video about processing them and used them in other Steemit Iron Chef Rounds - 1: With Olives in a Chopped Salad and 3: With Cucumbers in a Dessert.

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Cracking and Cooking With My Nuts

Out of all those hazelnuts, there were only 3 that had any nuts in them! That's what happens in the wild! But the Shellbark hickory nuts had large, sweet nutmeats. It took a lot of torque on the vice to crack these nuts - and then some delicate work with the nutpick. You won't see hickory nutmeats that large in many places!

Clockwise from the three little Hazelnuts: Hazelnuts, Shellbark Hickory nuts, English Walnuts, Gingko nuts, and English Oak acorn meal.

To process the acorns, I ground them in my coffee grinder. I put the nut meal into a big pot and filled it with cold water to leach the tannin out of the acorns. It took many hours and changes of water until the acorn meal lost its astringent tannin dryness! I strained out the water, for the last time, with a coffee filter.

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Enjoying My Nuts

I prepared each nut in a different way -- and the gingko nuts in 3 different ways. The English Walnuts have a sugar-cinnamon glaze. The hazelnuts are toasted. The hickory nuts are not changed in any way. So few people get to taste a real hickory nut. It's a shame to hide their sweet flavor. They are such an incredibly good nut! But they are so hard to get out of the shell, they are rare to find for sale - and then they cost so much.

I mixed the acorn meal with my homestead honey, and topped it with a couple strips of brandied orange peel.

Each group of gingko nuts tastes different. I roasted one set of gingko nuts the oven at 300F - simple but so flavorful! Another, I boiled and shelled them, and then sauteed them with a hit of soy sauce. A third group, I skewered them raw, then grilled them on a cast iron grill pan, with coarse salt. Each one tastes different - and each one is so good!

This is a simple plate of nuts. It would go great with a simple plate of cheese. It's simple, but it really highlights the different flavors of the nuts that grow around me. What nuts are around you?

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What Do You Think?

• What's your favorite nut?
• Have you ever foraged for nuts?
• Have you eaten acorns?
• Have you eaten hickory nuts?
• Would you eat my plate of nuts?

I eat a lot of wild plants and show you how, because I believe that we can all have lives that are richer, more secure, more grounded, and more interesting by getting to know the plants and the land around us – in our yards, our parks, and our wild places.

Thanks Hive account@progressivechef for creating the Steemit Iron Chef contest series!

I try to make content that's interesting! If you found this informative and helpful, please give it an upvote and a resteem.

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Plant List

• Shellbark Hickory Carya laciniosa
• Hazelnut Corylus avellana
• English Walnut Juglans regia
• English Oak Quercus robur
• Gingko Gingko biloba

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Haphazard Homestead

foraging, gardening, nature, simple living close to the land

All content is 100% Haphazard Homestead!My YouTube channel: Haphazard Homestead