4 sacks of walnuts to shell. We have done the first one. Keep at it! Out in the shed we turn the radio on (when its just me - I like to listen to National Radio ) or music and hammer away. Strict quality control....if in doubt throw it out. We only keep shelled nuts as there are too many surprises for us or others in unshelled ones. Once shelled I place them in either big 1 kg bags or more often small 300 gram bags with resealable tops. Our own to keep get stored in the deep freezer till needed. They just free flow from the bags so the quantity needed can be taken out & the rest put back. That way we never have rancid nuts( all the shop ones are slightly rancid ) and if there are any weevils they freeze to death. So,we have always got a supply of fresh perfect nuts that way. We do the same with the Macadamia nuts.
walnuts =Juglans regia ( we have 3 different varieties ).They are good for us as they have polyunsaturates in them and may lower cholesterol. Actually they are yummy that's the best bit! Raw or with a little cheese and / or ripe apple. A small handful a day is very good.
They are great for Waldorf Salad or Walnut Brownies but my favourite baked recipe is this:
Walnut and Apricot Loaf.
* Soak 1 cup of chopped dried apricots in 1 cup of boiling water for an hour.
* Beat 2 large eggs with 1 cup of sugar. Pour this into a bowl that already has 2 3/4 cups of flour and 2 tsps of baking powder and half a tsp of baking soda. Mix in.
* Now pour the apricots and any liquid left all into this mixture.
* Add 1 cup of chopped walnuts.
* Pour into a 1 large or 2 smaller lined loaf tins and cook at 180 degrees C ( or 350 degrees F )
for about 1 hour. (test with a skewer.) keeps well and freezes well.
Well now I'm off to the nut house ooops I mean shed.
