Virginia Real : Going Nuts...

September 29, 2017

Earlier this year my sister (Sis) gave me a pound of black walnuts that she had gotten from one of our cousins who cracks walnuts and sells them. I had some shredded zucchini in the freezer, so I re-worked an old recipe that I had used years ago and turned it into a gluten-free recipe. I didn't have high expectations for the final product because gluten-free rarely tastes as good as gluten-full, but I tried it any way and...oh...My...GOODNESS! It turned out great! So I used the rest of the walnuts to bake about five or six more of the yummy loaves of bread and stored them in the freezer. They say all good things must come to an end and so it goes with my zucchini bread. We ate the last one several weeks ago and now I'm wanting more. Why don't I just go to the grocery store and buy more walnuts you ask, well almost every nut available in the average grocery store in America has a note on the package that reads something like, "These nuts were processed on the same equipment that processes wheat, soy, and peanuts." Since wheat is a real bummer for my tummer I try to steer clear of it as much as possible.

While at the farm this week, I was lamenting over the fact that we had no more zucchini bread with the wonderful walnuts in it. (Yes, I do go into a state of "lamenting" when I run out of certain foods...mainly just potato chips and some form of sweet bread, muffins, or donuts...gluten-free, of course.) So Charming says something like, "We've got acres of woods. Surely there's a walnut tree out there somewhere." So we drive around the property with Charming at the wheel and me hanging out the passenger window peering intently into the woods for the familiar leaves of the walnut tree. (We were driving, not because we're lazy, but because I've had a bum ankle for the past few months.) We did not go on the other side of the river because I have a fear of tramping through the woods in warm weather. I don't want to stumble upon a snake of any size or color...the only good snake is a...well, there are no good snakes. I don't like ticks either. Or spiders...they're worse than snakes in my book.

After about twenty minutes of driving at one mile per hour, we returned to the camper. Not finding a walnut tree during our drive only made me fixate on having my own walnut tree. (Yea, unfortunately for Charming, I'm kinda like that.) Driving up the gravel road that leads to our house, I counted at least five walnut trees that are dropping walnuts on the road. So about that time, I was feeling like a villain in a Batman movie, "I MUST HAVE MY OWN WALNUT TREE!" The next morning after the morning dew had evaporated, I gimped across the open field towards the woods while Charming was busy working on the siding job. I followed the exact path that we had taken in the truck, but I took the time to look on the ground for leaves that had fallen off the trees. I knew if I could find the leaves from a walnut tree, the tree had to be within sight. Sure enough, when I got back within sight of the house, I found the small pointed yellow leaves on the ground and instinctively looked up to scan the tree tops and saw the green and brown clusters of nearly baseball-sized walnuts hanging in the tree. Yippee!!! The tree was about ten feet inside the wood line. There was quite a bit of undergrowth in front of the tree that was hiding it from view. The undergrowth needs to be cut out and the tree is not huge, but it's definitely a walnut tree. I count my blessings as God does indeed provide!