Harvesting Some Last-Minute Left Overs
Today I had a chance to do some foraging for other items around the yard.
Even though all of the apples are gone (I think the nearby walnut trees are killing the apple trees; we’ll fix that) for the year, there are plenty of left-over things to eat. In a previous post I mentioned all of the basil and onions (we’re still finding more onion bulbs), as well as the tomatoes, which are now all gone. We cured and stored the onions, but I don’t think they’re good keepers so we’ll be eating lots of onion dishes over the next few weeks. The basil is drying and, although it had already gone to seed, I think it will make a good dried herb for wintertime dishes.
In addition to the chestnuts we’ve been collecting for weeks (I made chestnut flour and will post about it when I find the pictures), I decided to try out the walnuts, which have pretty decent amounts of nut meat once you get them open. I felt like a cave-man bashing walnuts on a rock to test out the meat volume and flavor before picking some for later opening.
I also noticed the fennel seeds looked about ripe so I took what I could. The seeds are what you often find on the counter when leaving an Indian restaurant. I’m still not exactly sure how to tell the difference between fennel and anise as a plant, only that you can eat more than just the seeds of a fennel plant. I’d love to hear about that in the comments from anyone who has experience with both plants.
Next to the fenel is a good patch of chives, which will come in handy for garnishing all of the potatoes we still have from our previous garden.
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- Walnuts from one of our many trees.
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- One of our two chestnut trees. I'll post soon about chestnuts and what all you can do with them.
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- Fennel plant with little seeds on the end. We have two of these. I thought they were asparagus plants when I first saw them.
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- Some of the anise seeds in a glass.
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- Hanging chives to dry.
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- Hanging basil to dry.
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- Off-topic, but we went to an afternoon concert yesterday at a lcoal winery. We got to drink some great wine and enjoy a beautiful day while listening to JJ Grey and Mofro..
Related posts:
- The Stomach Virus Has Left The Building!
- Auwwwww Yea Baby, It’s AWN Now! The Seeds Are On Their Way.
Category: Food, The Transplants
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Wow, you’ve been industrious! I have not-so-fond childhood memories of cracking out black walnuts to sell by the quart. That took forever…. Unsurprisingly, I now avert my eyes when I see our own plentiful supply.
Anna with all of the little time-savers and inventions that you and Mark come up with I’m sure you can figure out a way to make small-scale walnut harvesting easier on everyone. You could live the rest of your life on the sales of something like that!