[Herbalist] Re: Herbalist digest, Vol 1 #101 - 2 msgs

Wes Will wwill at globaleyes.net
Mon Oct 15 18:42:31 PDT 2001


At 02:22 PM 10/15/01 -0500, you wrote:
>The walnuts - do they look like large softball sized green brains when they
>come off the tree?
>Christina

No, those are locally known as "hedge apples", but are the fruit of the
Osage Orange.  Folklore here-abouts has them as a good thing to toss under
your kitchen sink cupboard and in other out-of-the-way places as deterrents
to cockroaches and silverfish.  Considering how they smell, they ought to
_attract_ vermin, not repel it.

Black walnuts range up to tennis-ball-sized, green and sort of
nubbly-smooth to start.  They age (rot) to a dark blackish-brown.  There is
an outside hull surrounding a very hard nut.  The tree has a lobed compound
leaf (many small leaves making up one large one somewhat like a round-lobed
palm tree frond).

We harvest buckets of the things, and leave them in the driveway.  The
hulls are stripped off by driving over them a few times, and then a few
more usually cracks the inner nut shell a bit.

CAVEAT:  Be very careful if you try putting a black walnut on an anvil and
tapping the shell with a hammer.  The resulting shrapnel when that tough
exterior lets go is all too reminiscent of anti-personnel grenades.  They
let go like bombs.  You do usually get through the shell after a couple of
whacks, but a leather apron, heavy gloves, and some sort of face and eye
protection are recommended.

You think maybe I'm joking... No scars, but that's just Providence and
being young as well as stupid.  I thought my cheek would never quit bleeding.

--
Eoin Caimbeul



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