Walnuts finished processing - at last!

Whoopee, we have finally peeled, scrubbed, rinsed and dried all the walnuts we gathered. Some of the outer green skins were very hard and every sunny day we had, they sat out on the patio to mature.

Using plastic gloves we de-hulled them as and when ready, scrubbed off all the clinging bits, gave them a soak in mildly bleached water, rinsed them off.

You should have seen the state of the gloves and kitchen sink when we finished. Good job we were protected. Walnut hull stains take forever to come your skin so don't even touch them with your bare hands at all if you can help it.

The first batch are now fully dry and stored in an open weave onion bag:

The second (at the back) and third batches are still drying, having only been processed this weekend:

They will stay in the conservatory for a week or two then should be fine to put into nets. I inspect them every day for any that turn mouldy - bad nuts can be fatal.

I have just updated the menu tab above, with the meals and meat costs (for both of us) for the last week. Hope some of you are reading it!