I went out to Justin’s to sort through the last two 55-gallon barrels of walnuts that Justin picked up before the recent rainstorms. I ended up with 16 bags in my car ..

which were added to the rest already stored.

Lots of cracking and shelling ahead.

I am lucky! I have friends who ask if they can help me crack and shell walnuts. BYOHammer. Becky came over last Thursday morning and brought Starbucks. I made blueberry scones.

Monday afternoon, Elaine and Terri came over. I made pretzels with beer cheese sauce. And Merrilyn is lined up for next weekend. Thank you everyone.

With rain predicted for Wednesday afternoon, it was time to do a final gathering of the walnuts for this season. Tuesday: raking.

Wednesday: pick it all up.

Out of racks for drying, the next best choice.

A beautiful morning in E Nicolaus, a bit chilly, flocks of geese honking overhead.

Thank you Becky for wanting to gather walnuts with me. What a good friend! Becky raked all the walnuts from 15 trees into piles. I picked up about half the piles, sorted out the debris and filled 5 grocery bags to take home. We finished sorting the debris and left a thick layer of walnuts to finish drying. Justin picked up the rest of the walnuts later in the day.

At home, the walnuts went into stacked drying trays in the garage.

Time to gather again.

Crop duster flyover.

It took two afternoons to gather from 10 trees.

Almost to the perfect weight:

My walnut processing “factory” in the garage was humming this week. The gathered walnuts are a mix of perfect walnuts, imperfect walnuts, and debris – all that needs to be sorted. I poured a half bag into the shallow plastic box each time. The perfect walnuts went into the white bowl which was then dumped into a bag until it was almost full. The imperfect walnuts went to the right and were dumped into a separate bag – I may just throw these away in the end. The debris left in the plastic box was dumped into a third bag.
The perfect walnuts then get weighed, 12 pounds per bag, and put on shelves. I’m at 439 pounds with lots to go. The other garage activity was cracking a bowl (after bowl after bowl) full of the perfect walnuts,

then sitting at the dining room table with the tv remote nearby and shelling them,

followed by making candied walnuts and making one-pound packages of walnut halves.

I raked and picked up the final section of walnuts today. Of course by this last day, I finally figured the best way to bag them. It started with Justin’s neighbor, Mitch, who loaned me his walnut-gathering tools. That day I went to the hardware store in Marysville and got my own. A light weight walnut rake and a lightweight fork with a bit of a backstop on it.
Justin got the walnuts inside the pasture and loaded some of the bags into his trunk for delivery to my garage. The last 5 trees had the biggest yield I think. 27 bags today. Yes, my body aches from the exercise I got this week.
My garage is FULL of bags of walnuts.

Justin had the trees shaken a few days ago. There was a dry north wind (bad for fires, good for walnuts on the ground) with no chance of rain so Mother Nature dried the walnuts this year. Hurray! Justin made a nice arrangement of tools for me on the lawn. We weren’t sure which would be the best. I ended up using just the metal rake and a dustpan.
One tree raked and bagged, 14 to go.
Almost half the trees are done. 25 bags today. Using a dustpan to scoop up the raked walnuts means there will be debris to deal with.
My vehicle is full!
Oops! Slow down on those turns, girl!

While I was away, Justin gathered walnuts for me (thank you!) and sent me a picture.


The last pile after 4 hours of raking and gathering. 10 1/2 bags!
I weighed everything and now it’s time to start the drying rotation.

Total so far = 239 pounds

The last few days have been busy. Getting lesson plans ready for two bike clubs. Making a sign and cracking/shelling 30 pounds of walnuts. There’s a craft fair on April 12 at the clubhouse but I will be out of town. Two of my neighbors, Silvia and Kathie are going to man my table and sell walnuts and hopefully find some people who would like to buy part of a cow from Justin in late August.
Time to finish packing: