POV - sitting on the floor in front of a black metal wire folding cart full of black walnuts - some in husks, some not in husks. There's a reusable shopping bag in there, too, but they filled that up and started filling the rest of the space. There is a can of non-alcoholic Blue Moon (Belgian White) on the floor in front of teh cart. It is only about 2cm highter than the axle. I'd say the cart is about 5 cans tall.

Soooo, I filled this up, and it wasn't even a THIRD of them!!!!

Can of non-alcoholic Blue Moon for scale.

Also, someone driving past while I was picking these up opened their car window and shouted, "OhMyGod THANK you!!!!"

#BlackWalnuts
#TennisBallSeason
#Foraging

POV looking up a city street. The gutter is full of leaves, and SO many black walnuts - most still in their hulls, which are in various stages of oxidation and showing as black, dark brown, yellow, and some yellow-green. They are everywhere. In the gutter, in the street, on the sidewalk... and, not pictured, two houses' worth of yards and front walks.

There's a large black walnut tree a couple of blocks over, that has been taking up several parking spots because no one wants to risk dents or broken windows.

So, I figured I would solve everyone's problem, AND get more walnuts for myself!

#Walnuts
#TennisBallSeason

Looking down into the bottom half of a cracked-open black walnut. The very outside of the shell is rough and inky black, and the inside is filled with (sort of) symmetrical chambers. Some tasty-looking walnut "meat" can be seen in all of them.

This glorious thing is half of the contents of a North American black walnut, and the largest bit I was able to get out in one piece. To be honest, it looks like the top half of a human pelvis, or perhaps a fantastical rocket ship blasting off, with two clouds of steam and smoke on either side. There are symmetrical nodes on either side of what could be seen as a vertically oriented almond, or, if we're going with the top-of-a--human-pelvis comparison, the saccral vertebrae. There is a brown skin over the top of the whole thing, with a vertical split in the middle revealing a white inside. There are filaments going through this covering, almost like veins. Life-sized, it is about 1cm tall and 2-3cm from wingtip to wingtip.

And here, we have a plastic round tray (actually a new flower pot dish) filled with the fruits of my labor - the entire bottom is covered in a layer of walnut bits. Most are very small - smaller than ice cream toppings, even, but I sure as heck wasn't going to waste any of that walnutty goodness!

Who knew that shelling black walnuts could be so... cathartic?

I got tired of looking at all of the delicious tennis balls, wasted on the ground, and finally went and bought a gadget designed *specifically* to crack black walnuts.

And... BEHOLD!!!

#BlackWalnuts
#Foraging
#TennisBallSeason