Sunday Stuff 10/19
Happy Sunday! Come see what I’ve been up to this week, plus some of my current faves and new finds.
I’ve spent the last few days in the Sacramento area with Diamond Nuts experiencing the walnut harvest. We walked around orchards, dodged harvesting equipment, and toured the processing where 1 million walnuts are cracked each day. The scope of the whole operation was pretty mind boggling, and it was so fascinating to see the journey each nut takes from the orchard to the grocery store shelves.
Do you know how nuts are harvested from their trees? It’s really cool.
It was such a quick but wonderful trip, and I’m so glad that I had a chance to meet a few new bloggers. Here were my nutty companions (see what I did there?):
Liz from The Lemon Bowl
Tiffany from Creme de la Crumb
Hayley from The Domestic Rebel
Amy from Amy’s Healthy Baking
Melissa from Fit ‘N’ Well Mommy
Karen from The Food Charlatan
Trish from Mom on Time Out
Sarah from Snixy Kitchen
Lynda from TasteFood
Alex from Delish Knowledge
I’m actually going to be working with Diamond Nuts over the course of the next 10 months as a culinary ambassador. Each month I’ll bring you a new recipe, and I honestly can’t wait to get baking!
When this package showed up at my door, I almost peed my pants from excitement. That’s a lot of nuts!
While I was away, John went ahead and grew up. I actually had a “real” conversation with him on the phone one night. He held the phone to his ear, said “hi” and and “I love you, mommy” and told me all about his dinosaur pajama shirt.
Halloween is getting closer and I think we all need this appetizer in our back pocket for parties and gatherings. Frankenguac!
Speaking of Halloween, how do you feel about candy corn? Yay or nay? I don’t know why but I just can’t resist the stuff.
Are you a blogger trying to turn your hobby into a business? Cookin’ Canuck’s tutorial on How to Write a Blog Business Plan is a must-read.
Last week I got together with my friend Kelley of Mountain Mama Cooks, who lives nearby in Park City, to do some baking. She made this easy chicken and mushroom pot pie with puff pastry crust, and even sent me home with some of the leftovers. Cannot recommend this recipe enough, it was so good!
My husband is obsessed with this video. I’ll just go ahead and warn you now, the song is going to get stuck in your head.
After hearing so many great things about this book, I finally bought it for my trip to California. Already half way through and loving it!
And finally, I’m going to end with a link to this cake. Because…wow.
Happy Sunday friends! Hope you’re all enjoying your weekend.
Disclosure: Diamond Nuts paid all of my travel expenses for my trip to California. All opinions are my own, as always. Thank you for supporting partnerships with brands I believe in.
That is a lot of nuts!! I am looking forward to your upcoming recipes.
Could you share anything you might have picked up about harvesting and preparing walnuts?
I have one lone walnut tree in my backyard. I started it from a nut that was sprouting on the ground 15 years ago and it produces nuts every year. Also makes awesome shade and a spot for a swing for my grandson. But I have never found the information about how to determine that they’re ripe, or how to remove the green husk or if they need aging or other preparation before the nutmeats are edible.
I occasionally — VERY occasionally — find one on the ground that has a tasty nutmeat. Mostly, I take them green and immature in early Summer and make nocino from them because I’ve never mastered useable nutmeats for baking.
Thanks in adavance.
Hi Rainey! I’m definitely not a nut expert, but I can share what I observed from Diamond Nut’s harvest of their walnuts. They harvest their trees in October, when the green husk has split open and you can see the walnut inside, and they start falling off the tree. The green husk just crumbles away. Then the walnuts need to be dried out, which can be done outdoors in the sunshine over the course of several days to a week. And then they’re ready for eating! I hope this helps.
Thanks so much! I’ll look for those conditions and see if I can enjoy some of my nuts in a cookie or two. ; >
I did see the cracks on the green husks in your photo. Mine don’t typically do that. Maybe that’s why I haven’t been so successful at getting nutmeats. Perhaps the tree needs more water than I’m giving it at the end of the summer. I just tend to ignore it after I’ve gotten my immature green walnuts.
Mostly, VERY timely advice and I thank you!
I love the video you took of the nut shaking! It was so lovely to spend the day with you in the orchards. Looking forward to seeing what you make with all those nuts!
Love all these photos Annalise! And I’m pretty excited to see all your Diamond posts. It’s going to be epic! That photo of your son is sooooooo cute!!
It was so wonderful spending time with you in California!! I can’t wait to see what nutty creations you come up with this year. 🙂
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