Week of October 3, 2021

My return to TAProots Farm for the harvest has been a busy and happy one, with many crops to pick and process as well as endless preparations for next year’s plantings. The harvest has included 60 tons of Concord grapes (the most ever) and bumper crops of Canadice seedless grapes, gourds, and late harvest blackberries. However, the big surprise this year has been our first crop of WALNUTS. Probably 12-15 years ago, I planted two Carpathian walnut trees, a variety of the English walnut. The buck deer girdled them to rub the velvet off their antlers and one tree died before I could cage them with rabbit fencing. The living one poked along, growing very slowly for ten years, then put on good growth the last few years. This year, the smooth green husks of walnuts appeared after a good set of flowers. When I returned for the harvest, the ground was littered with walnuts! The green husk splits open and the brown nut falls out. I gathered over 6 dozen, many larger that the ones at the grocery store. I used a nutcracker on one, with the brown membrane and light colored nutmeat showing its ripeness. Like the chestnuts from Florida, the walnuts have been drying and will be brought to our Thanksgiving celebration with our children and grandchildren.