Walnut tree grows here / Prophylactic self-isolation series. Day 257th.

I remember myself in childhood, climbing on walnut trees and gathering nuts with my cousin. Just an episode, but it stayed with me through the years.

These days another walnut trees surround me and I just need to reach out to grab a few of nuts. Some of them are blown on my balcony by wind; but the biggest amount of the harvest reaches my neighbor downstairs. Thank you, my friend, for sharing!:)

Walnut (lat. Juglans regia)

In a botanical sense, walnut is not truly a nut, but an edible seed of a drupe. Consequently, drupe is a simple fleshy fruit that usually contains a single seed. As a simple fruit, a drupe is derived from a single ovary of an individual flower. Some other examples of drupe are cherry, peach, and olive (1).

Walnuts beside my balcony

A walnut tree by itself is rich in leaves, brunchy and high.

I noticed the first signs of fruiting in the end of May (the first image was done on May 30, 2020).

Then the full-size fruits have formed at the end of September, with green fleshy core, while some of them were already mature and ready to fall down (images on September 29, 2020)

Harvest days – mid of October. It is good to pick up walnuts from a tree when it easily detaches from the twig. If not easily detaches from the twig – this means the fruit still needs time to mature and should not be taken by force.

The last image – trees without any leaves is made today, on November 24, 2020.

We do not take an example from a squirrel who hides the nuts for a winter time, because almost all of the harvest is already eaten:)

There is a great difference in taste between walnuts in a plastic package and walnuts in a Nature’s package, its native shell. More so, you see how and where the tree grows, you spend time with it, you observe its growth and life. The fruits then come as a piece of Creation phenomenon.

I would say it is a kind of bliss food given directly by Nature, without a broker.

References:

1. Drupe, plant anatomy, available online: https://www.britannica.com/science/drupe