Gratuitous pretty sky picture
I had to post today because I was so excited when O told me we had Butternuts! This is one of numerous clusters.
Here is a Black Walnut, Juglans nigra, for comparison. We'll have a ton of these.
Butternuts are also known as White Walnuts, Juglans cinerea. Kentucky lists them as Special Concern, Tennessee as Threatened. Butternut canker is killing the trees and reducing their range so we planted some here a few years ago.I've never tasted the nut and never seen it for sale in stores. I love black walnuts (they're much more bitter than commonly available English walnuts) so I'm sure I'll swoon over these. It's said they have a high oil content and go rancid quickly so I'll be sitting under the tree come fall, waiting for them to ripen!
7 comments:
I bet you will indeed love them. We always gathered a bushel or two of butternuts every fall, along with hickory nuts and black walnuts. They were eaten picked from the shell, or in baked goods and fruit salads. I don't remember them as being any harder to keep than the others; we kept them in the basement coal bin, which was cold though not below freezing, and was where we kept apples in baskets.
Like walnuts, different butternut trees produce various tasting nuts. We had our favorites, and there were trees whose butternuts weren't worth the picking up.
I still gather butternuts when I can find them—though not so many. And what I do bring in seldom stay around long enough to spoil. But if you like black walnuts, you'll adore butternuts.
You have such a green thumb! Thank you for sharing it!
Scribe, two bushels!!! Sounds like striking gold. Good to know that rancidity isn't necessarily an issue. But I'm still sittin' under the tree.
Jenn, my thumb can't take too much credit when it comes to trees:
1) watch it rain,
2) see the sun,
3) flip calendar pages,
4) harvest.
We have several walnut trees, but I don't think I've ever even seen a butternut tree...
Wanda, they're very similar. Butternut trees are generally smaller, the compound leaves may have fewer leaflets, their range is more northern, and the hulls are very, very sticky! I read that they're more fragrant, which is hard to believe. I ADORE the scent of Black Walnut leaves and hulls so I can't wait to smell these.
Thank you for the walnut lesson! I only knew of juglans regia, which I like to put in my applepies. Never heard of yours before but I'll be on the look out for them now.
Love the sky picture, the clouds are so beautifully colored.
Jenny, regia is most common here, I usually have some on hand for baking or munching. Blacks and whites are native to North America and more of a delicacy. I'd be interested to know if they're available in Europe.
Sometimes the clouds just knock me over, they're so pretty.
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