Here we are at the end of August and due to being heat stressed, the walnut trees are already dropping their nuts. (Usually this doesn't happen till late September/early October here in Oklahoma.) At first the nuts were smaller than usual, but the closer we get to "normal" harvest time, the larger the nuts are becoming.
I like to take the opportunity of my lunch hour to get out of the office and pick-up walnuts. I try to be deligent and get them as soon as they fall, when they're still green. I never pick them off the tree quite simply because the tree isn't finished making them yet. Many times, I feel like an overgrown squirrel picking up nuts and putting them into my recycled shopping bag. There are always plenty to share with my furry bethren as I pass over those that have lain on the ground too long, or are slightly imperfect due to other ways.
In the park where I typically pick up these little packages of brown dye, there is one tree that has been barren for several years. Today, it yielded three nuts to me! I wonder if that is all it will produce.
When I return home from work, I will hoard my nuts into drying racks. There they will wait until it is time to relinquish their tannin treasure to my dye bath.
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