Grandpa's Harvest

So what do you know about walnuts?  If you want to buy them at the store they are expensive!

It has been a tradition in our family to harvest the walnuts that fall on the ground at our family "farm"...an old farm property where my parent's live and run their lawn & garden business.  Growing up, we spent many fall days after school standing under the walnut trees and picking up what looked like tennis balls, but stained our hands like india ink.  At the core of this tradition stands my Grandpa, Lynn C. Bowers. At 86 years old, he still carries out our tradition of harvesting the walnuts, and it is no easy process...

Grandpa begins by picking up all of the walnuts on the ground.  He uses a device that grabs them without having to constantly bend over.

After he is finished collecting, it is time to shuck the walnuts.  Grandpa uses a sludge hammer to get the soft outer flesh off of the shell.  Inside there is a hard rounded sphere shaped shell.

Once the shucking is finished, Grandpa uses a cement mixer to clean the shells of all of the flesh.  After he dumps them out he rinses them again with the garden hose.

The shells are laid out until they are dry.

Now the walnuts are clean and round...but they are not harvested yet!

Grandpa takes a hammer to each walnut to crack the hard shell.  The nuts are inside.

Once they are cracked open, Grandpa puts them in a tub and takes them into the kitchen where Grandma does the rest.  (I helped her a lot too when I was a kid!)  Grandma picks the nuts out of the shells and grinds them in a grinder.  Then she bakes them in her cookies and pies.  Grandma's Walnut Pie seriously the best!  I sell the shells for crafts in my etsy supply shop Basics by Funamals.

My Grandpa has taught me to always work hard.  Eventually it pays off!