It’s Nut Season

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With Autumn rapidly approaching, nuts are starting to drop...and this is a great time to forage.

Already a few weeks back, our neighbour John was quick to bring to us his Persian (or English) Walnuts. They have actually been dropping from his trees for quite a while now.

As he did last year, he brought us a bucketful; and as promised then, this time we were to clean them ourselves. Having had our nut processing experience last Fall, we were happy to dig in.

Processing Persian Walnuts

Now this is where I have a word of caution. We were fully aware of the staining properties of Black Walnuts. It turns out Persian Walnuts (and for that matter most Walnuts) are the same to a different degree. So since I did not wear any gloves, again I made a mess of my hands (as I did last year).

The second nut (and my favourite) to come this Season is the Shagbark Hickory. They are dropping from the trees now. We discovered these on the back property line last year and now every time we return we seem to find a new tree that has escaped our attention.

Christine on the hunt for Hickory nuts

Hoping for a much better harvest than last year, we were very early on the lookout for these distinctive nuts. This has not helped much!

I have read that individuals should be conscientious and leave sufficient nuts for the local wildlife. This, we certainly have no problem doing. It would help however if the wildlife left us a bit.  What we find is a lot of well opened and well shelled nuts by what seem to be a variety of small animals.

I guess this makes our take that much more valuable.

Our prized Hickory nuts

We have already harvested a few Black Walnuts very early in the summer for special processing. Soon, the fully mature nuts will be falling. Already some can be found on the ground. 

When it comes to the Black Walnut, we will definitely repeat last year’s effort since over the past twelve months, we have consumed our entire stockpile. We have used these at home, but Chef has also taken a liking to them.

The cracking of these nuts is quite a challenge and I was reminded of this by one of our customers. She had bought some un-shelled Black Walnuts locally and wanted to know how to process them. When I explained the process, I think I lost her when I mentioned the wire cutters.

The result is that she came back to give us her Black Walnuts. I promised to shell them and in return give her something we have processed with these nuts (hopefully before she returns to Florida for the Season).

So we were faced with shelling some Black Walnuts earlier than anticipated. The technique we adopted last year and reported on this blog worked out quite well (heavy hammer, concrete surface and wire cutters).

Once shelled, I decided to process a milk jam (something we discovered last Fall). This is akin to Dulce de Leche but in our case, I added very finally grated Black Walnuts in order to create Black Walnut Milk Jam.

Our latest and rather unique preserve: Black Walnut Milk Jam

Chef has also been using these nuts for his latest round of Biscotti, some of his sour dough breads and more recently an Apple Strudel which he is currently developing.

Another neighbour has also surprised us with a bag of nuts that are now falling from one of her trees. She had asked me to help identify them. The only thing I could think of is Butternut or White Walnut. Since their oblong shape is very similar to those we discovered on the farm this Spring. However, the bark of her tree is quite different. After doing some research, she believes that these nuts are Manchurian Walnuts. We are now eagerly waiting for the fruit to ripen so we can process them and hopefully clearly identify these nuts once and for all.

The two on the top may be different than the one on the bottom! Manchurian or White Walnut???

Finally, an avid blog reader was also keen to get us her latest find: Chestnut...and the edible kind. Having read our blog, she knew how passionate we are about the Chestnut (hence why we planted a small grove of 10 trees).

Although not yet ripe, this was a beautiful specimen and hopefully a great sign of things to come.

A wonderful example of an edible Chestnut 

The local community never ceases to amaze us. Whether customers, blog readers or neighbors, we are always surprised by the generosity of the local folk and their eagerness to help us.

I have not reported on our grapes so far, because frankly we have none! The lack of pruning meant that very few drupes developed. Once these ripened, they turned out to be a small feast for birds and very likely deer. This was quite a disappointment since we wanted to practice the processing of Concord grapes (juices and jellies).

This is where another neighbour (from about a block away) came to our rescue. Sadly, her husband had passed away last year and she was left with two rows of vines she could not upkeep (Concord and Niagara). She had pruned them so far back early in the Spring she had hoped to kill them! 

The reverse happened and she had a bounty of grapes which she did not want to waste....and this she offered to us.

Having been quite busy on the Biodome, we were a little late in beginning to harvest these grapes but this week we found some time to do so. What we did not realize is how much we would be collecting in our first attempt. 

One of two baskets of Concords...and we're only a quarter of the way done

The challenge was no longer getting grapes but rather how to process them. After spending some 8 hours cleaning and de-stemming the grapes. We decided on juicing and eventually making some jellies.

We used our trusty steam juicer and one half of our first harvest (one basket) produced 10 litres. After doing a bit of math, we really had to think long term about the production capacity of our own vines. These grapes will generate a significant amount of juice.

Being restricted on time, we decided to take the second batch and actually attempt to make a wine. Apparently, Concord grapes do not necessarily make a good wine but historically they have been used in the US to make some decent Kosher wines. So we had to give it a try since we had much of the equipment and an abundance of the key ingredient.

We crushed our grapes, placed them in one of our fermentation barrels and added some yeast. We expect to have to mix the mash regularly (ie. what the French call "battonage").

First mixing of our fermenting crushed grapes

Things are also evolving on the side of the restaurant. Chef has launched the new Autumn menu with a couple of hearty seasonal dish: a warm Lentil, Mushroom and Goat's Cheese salad with Bacon Vinaigrette, and a Cured Char with Potato Cakes, Horseradish Cream, Kale and Apple Salad. Both are delectable.

The cured Char is something that Ryan has developed in house.

Chef's Cured Arctic Char

In fact, Chef is returning to his Germanic roots as we also prepare for our next event: Oktoberfest.

We have decided to hold a special early evening dinner at the Tea Room on October 5th. This will feature beer from Silversmith Brewery in Niagara-on-the-Lake along with a traditional German meal of Pretzels, Sausages, Sauerkraut, Potatoes and Apple Strudel.

In anticipation, Chef has been fine-tuning his strudel making skills and has also started his home-made Sauerkraut. 

Chef grating cabbages for our own home made Sauerkraut

Finally, I leave you this week with a photo of our newly (and seasonally decorated barn)...thank you, Carol!

 

Fall is in the air....