Walnuts or Tennis Balls?

 

 

Every year in September my yard gets littered with what looks like hundreds of tennis balls. They are not tennis balls, they are walnuts. They are the product of several huge black walnut trees in my front yard at the Munro House Bed and Breakfast in Jonesville Michigan. The same trees that give awesome shade all summer, produce a plethora of debris in the month of September and early October. The nuts that fall in the street make a sound like gunshots when they are run over by cars.  The neighbor kids enjoy the popping noise.
 

Along with the walnuts, come small branches and leaves that the heavy nuts knock off on their way to the ground. It is a big chore to clean them up every week, especially if the weather does not cooperate when there is time in my schedule. I used to save them for the Boy Scouts who would collect them and sell them to the Amish. The Amish would then clear the rind, crack the nuts, and use the meat for baking purposes. The Scouts have not been by to collect them this year, so I guess they will end up at the landfill. I have attempted to save the meat for myself, but it is a very messy job. Inside the green rind is a black, mushy, ink-like substance that envelopes the nut. All of that needs to be discarded and it is a big mess that is difficult if not impossible to clean from clothing.  The Amish buy them by the ton, and my vehicle will not support that much weight.

 

Anyone who is ambitious enough to take on this challenge is welcome to come to my house and collect the nuts.   They start falling en masse around Labor Day.  These are always the first bare trees of the season.  Before peak fall colors are evident in the area during mid October, my black walnut trees will be barren of leaves, and nuts.  The quantity of nuts is cyclical, with a large quantity every 2 or 3 years, and a much smaller quantity in-between.  This year has been a big year for us, so we are looking forward to some relief in 2011.

Mike Venturini
Jonesville Michigan Bed and Breakfast Innkeeper
“Life is good in Jonesville”

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