Ep. 274 : Black Walnut, again.

Slowly colonizing the sunlit fields and edges, home to all sorts of creatures both large and small, these towering monuments tell of the abundance of the land. Black Walnuts are amazing allies in healing, mentors in boundaries, relative buffet in mast years, and year round marker of beauty. Who doesn’t want to sing their praises! Maybe by the end of the show, you’ll love them a little more too?

Ep. 228 : Walnut Husk Maggot Fly

Every big mast year for Black Walnuts I like to harvest a ton of them and then process them for both the husks and the nutmeat inside. While the nutmeats are very troublesome to access it is getting easier as I learn which tools are better than others, and the food value is totally worth it. As for the husks, it’s pretty easy to rip or cut them off of the nut. This year, as in previous years as well, there has been a small ethical dilemma which has come up when using the husks for dye. Nestled in the husks are small larvae of what I believe to be the Walnut Husk Maggot Fly which is a fruit fly I don’t know much about. But because I love Walnuts, I figured I should learn.

Ep. 167 : Black Walnut

Black Walnut (Juglans nigra) is a tree I have been building relationship with for years. Through gathering, processing, storing, cooking, dyeing, planting, distributing and educating, this has been a plant I have come to know a lot about, and with whom I have shared some of myself with. I do not know Walnut in all stages (I long to know the flowers more), and I do not know the post glacial dispersal (it’s always nice to learn the backstory), I am slowly coming to understand the more than human relationships this tree has with the world around them. I am also deepening my understanding of the complex relationships this plant has with humans.