English Walnut – Juglans regia

Walnuts

…I stand in the dark for a long time
        under the walnut tree, unable
                   to tell anyone, not even the night,
         what I know…

By Lynn Martin 

The English Walnut, the Common Walnut, the Persian Walnut, or the Royal Walnut are all variant names for one tree and its fruit that grows from the Balkans east to the Himalayas and southwest into China! It is not native to England at all, which the common name wal-nut reflects, as wal is Germanic for foreign.

 

In ancient Rome they were considered ‘food of the Gods,’ and were named for the god Jupiter (Jupiter’s glans being Jupiter’s acorn). The walnut is also associated with Juno, the goddess married to Jupiter, who is goddess of women, and marriage. This association to both God and Goddess led to an odd wedding practice of throwing walnuts at the new couple to ensure fertility! In fact in Poitou, France it was the custom for the new bride and her groom to dance around the large walnut tree there to ensure she produced copious amounts of breast milk for their children!

 

The earliest written record of walnut use is from the Chaldeans who left accounts on clay tablets of the orchards of English Walnut that were in the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. The earliest cultivation of the walnut is credited to the Greeks who used walnuts for food, medicine, and dye for the hair, wool and cloth.

 

The Walnut has a long history of use in the field of herbal medicine. The nut, the bark and the leaves are astringent, laxative, purgative, styptic, vermifuge, and hepatic. It has been used to cause sweating, treat diarrhea, and treat sore gums, herpes, and swollen tonsils. The hulls were used to treat head lice, body lice, herpes, parasites, liver problems, and skin issues. A tea was made from the leaves to treat boils, eczema, hives, ulcers, and other sores. The nut was used to prevent weight gain, reduce cholesterol, calm anxiety and hysteria, treat morning sickness and to generally strengthen the whole of the body.

 

The walnut has also been used extensively for food. It is high in protein, Vitamins B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, and E, folic acid, iron, magnesium, potassium and zinc. 3 Tablespoons of walnut oil will also provide all your daily need of Omega 3 fatty acids! The nut can be eaten out of hand, but the flavor improves with light roasting. It is often included in confections like candy, cakes and cookies. They can also be added to salads, meat dishes and stir fries. The oil can be drizzled over salads or steamed vegetables. The nut has also been powdered and a nut ‘milk’ made from it to increase the nutritional value for invalids.

 

The hull and leaves have been used to make dye stuff for centuries. A dark brown dye that is used for wool and hair is obtained from the leaves and mature hulls. If the dye is made in an iron pot the dye becomes black. The green hulls provide a yellow dye. Both types of dye required no mordant due to the high tannic acid content.  

Pecan – Carya illinoinensis

Pecan

…pecans in the South, the jumbled

flavor of them suddenly in my mouth,

wordless, confusing,

crowding out everything else.

By Gregory Djanikian

This native of rich bottom lands of the south especially likes streamside plantings. When the pecans are ripe (and sometimes before) they drop to the ground. They are some of the easiest to harvest with relatively this shells. After they have dropped to the ground they make an intense litter problem, the squirrels having cracked them wide open spilling the nutmeats and shells everywhere. The name pecan means ‘a nut needing to be cracked with a stone,’ in the Algonquian language.

 

When you think of the South and nuts, the only one that comes readily to mind is the Pecan. It has become the nut symbol for the South. It has been declared the state tree for Alabama and Texas. April has been made National Pecan Month.

 

Even with its popularity in the South, the pecan was not introduce to the European theater until the 16^th century when Cabeza de Vaca first recorded finding it and reported its use to Spain. It was then that he brought bushels of the familiar nut back to Europe with him for the Spanish crown to sample.

 

The bark and leaves of the pecan tree are astringent and have been formulated into a decoction to treat TB. The powdered leaves are rubbed onto the skin for the treatment of ringworm.

 

The nuts of the pecan have been used by Native Americans as food for centuries, in both the raw and cultivated forms. The Native Americans were in fact the first to cultivate them. The nut is rich with a buttery flavor. Dishes made with them become known as ‘rich’ dishes. They can be eaten fresh, out of hand, or cooked into desserts or savory dishes. The traditional dessert of the South, the Pecan Pie, is well known for its richness of flavor and is often consumed in small portions!

American Walnut – Juglans nigra

American/Black Walnut

This walnut is native to central and eastern North America, but was introduced to Europe in 1629. It was imported and grown there for its wood, not so much for the nuts. The wood is used to make furniture, flooring and rifle stocks.

The black (or American) walnut is used as food. The nutmeat has a robust, distinctive flavor which some people find overpowering after eating English Walnuts). The nuts are used in ice cream, cookies, cakes, fudge, and pies. The nut is high in saturated fat and protein. If the tree is tapped in early spring, like a maple, it yields a sweet sap that can be cooked down to syrup.

The drupes of the nuts are used to obtain a brown black dye. Early settlers used it as a hair dye. The dye is still used as a dye in handicrafts, and the tannin present is used as a mordant (color fixative) aiding in the dying process. The dark color is also used as a dark ink or wood stain.

Many plants find it difficult to grow around or near a black walnut tree. The tree puts out juglone, which is a respiratory inhibitor to some plants. I have seen walnuts with nothing other than grass growing beneath them due to this! If white birch should be introduced to the area it will promptly die.