Sunday, September 7, 2008

Harvest Time

Today Brian and I decided to harvest some of our apples and start shucking out black walnuts. We finally purchased a ladder so we could reach some of the highest apples. (The best apples are always at the top of the tree, you know.) Here's Brian setting up the ladder and each of us taking a turn climbing it.We decided that maybe the apples aren't quite ripe yet and that we should wait a few more weeks, but we had fun hanging out in the orchard. The apples we picked were still a little tart, but they'll be delicious in pies and dumplings.
The dogs, as usual, were very helpful. Dawson has recently learned that he can jump up and pick his own apples instead of eating the ones on the ground. Smart pup! Shucking the walnuts isn't quite as easy as picking apples, so we decided to use my car to run over the nuts and get the husks off. This system worked pretty well and we have about 100 walnuts drying in the basement. I imagine we'll be collecting nuts for many weekends to come. Black walnuts are wonderful and I can't wait to make a batch of brownies using them...probably around Thanskgiving. If anyone knows how long black walnuts have to dry for, let me know...

3 comments:

Ryan + Louise said...

You're freaking awesome. I love the mental image of you two linig up the walnuts so you could drive over them!!!!

ginny said...

Hi Hope! I hope that you and Brian are having a blast in Iowa and are super happy. Charlie called the other day, but I didn't get a chance to talk to him. Could you send me your address and phone number.
Thanks,
ginny@alaska.edu

Mer said...

I didn't know you could eat them...! Louise & I used to have to rake them up before mowing the lawn because they'd chew up the blades. Mom boiled them down to use as dye for making baskets. All those years we were missing out on walnut brownies from our own yard...