Our schedule needs diaries! Please message Mark Morgan if you have one in mind.
Nuts are nutritional power houses. Packed with protein, minerals, and healthy fats, an ounce a day is proven to help you maintain or lose weight.
I have been trying to establish nut trees of all types on my property. I've had a lot of failures and a few successes. My Hale's Hardy almond grew and flowered and made lots of nuts... that inexplicably had no kernels in the shells. Then the highway department cut it down because it blocked the line of sight. I have tried repeatedly to get a stone pine to grow, without success.
Some trees have succumbed to watering failures. Some have been nibbled to death by ducks and geese. (Yes really. They like bark, apparently. So I have to make wire circles for trees)
But my English walnut is big and beautiful and has given me nuts for the last four years. Yay!!
I have new young almond and chestnut and hazelnut trees surviving so far, so with a lot of luck there will be more yummy goodness in a few years.
Meanwhile I buy what I can't grow, and find all the recipes I can to use my bounty of walnuts. Walnuts are not only good sources of monounsaturated fats like most nuts, they also have omega-3 fats.
Walnut-Bean Pate
(adapted from Taste of Persia by Naomi Duguid)
1 cup walnut pieces, lightly toasted if you like.
2 cups cooked kidney beans
3 garlic cloves
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 tsp. salt
½ tsp pepper
2 tsp. dried mint or ½ cup fresh herb of your choice.
Puree thoroughly. Serve with bread or crackers
Walnut Pesto
2 cups fresh basil, packed (2 ounces by weight)
½ cup fresh parsley
1/3 cup olive oil
½ cup walnut pieces
2 (or more) cloves garlic
½ cup Parmesan or Romano cheese
optional salt to taste
Blend until thoroughly combined. Can be frozen.
Putting a ground nut crust on baked fish is a flavorful alternative to breading. Taste of Persia also includes a fish recipe stuffed with a paste of ground walnuts and tart fruit, which I haven’t tried yet.
Nut Loaf is a vegetarian main dish option, the linked recipe is also gluten free.
Squash Crumble
2 cups cooked, mashed winter squash, salted to taste. Optional, add 1 finely chopped and sauteed onion.
1/2 cup finely chopped English walnuts
1/2 cup quick oats
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. each ginger and nutmeg
Spread squash (and onion if using) in a baking dish, stir together all other ingredients and spread over the top. Bake at 350° for 30 minutes or until lightly browned.
Patina versatilis (turned over) (Nut Custard)
from Apicius
“Pine nuts, chopped nuts, cleaned and roasted and crushed with honey, mix in pepper, broth, milk, eggs, a little honey and oil.”
2 cups total, nuts of choice, toasted and coarsely ground
2 eggs
½ c. milk
1 tsp. ground cubebs
pinch of salt
1 tsp. olive oil
¼ cup honey
Mix and place in a greased baking dish, set this in a larger baking dish with an inch of water, bake at 350 for half an hour or until set. Unmold onto a serving plate.
And, of course, any variation of Waldorf salad
Baklavah!
(Search it yourself, I'm too lazy)
Go nuts!