We have a very large black walnut tree growing between our garage and the clothes line. Michael trims it back to keep it in check and to protect the garage roof. Several days ago he lopped off a number of branches. They were laden with green nuts.

My assignment was to cut up the downed branches, haul the brush, and gather the usable firewood. When I saw how many green nuts were in those branches, I headed to the computer for recipes. (I did get the yard cleaned as well. I love my mini electric chain saw!)

I found two recipes that interested me. One was for nocino, an Italian liqueur made from seeping chopped green walnuts in alcohol. We have some Everclear, which we got at the beginning of the pandemic in case we could not get other disinfectants. Our hoarding sensibilities proved useless, but it turns out Everclear is fine for making nocino, as long as you cut it half and half with water. The other recipe, for walnut “ketchup”, left the walnuts hole and soaking in water prior to final preparation.

The recipes I found for nocino generally involved adding spices such as cloves and star anise, as well as lemon peel. The one I chose mentioned those, but warned that the spices could drown the nutty flavor. It suggested using some coffee beans and fragrant bedstraw (galium triflorum) or Angelica instead. I looked up the herbs, including their range and habitats, and took Zeke for a walk. I could not conclusively identify any Angelica, but I did find the fragrant bedstraw in a neighbor’s woods. And boy, is it fragrant! Apparently, it is used to make vanilla flavoring when true vanilla is not available.

My experiments are sitting on my kitchen floor. The whole nuts steep for a week before processing with vinegar and spices. The chopped nuts steep for a month before being strained and then aged for six months. In other words, I won’t know if my experiments are worth the effort for a while yet. Patience!

In the meantime, the potatoes and onions are getting ready for harvest. Potato salad must have been invented to take advantage of the convergence of these two garden wonders. It is our first year growing Yukon Gold. They taste richer, perhaps starchier, than reds or russets, frying up as well as the blues. They produce large, nicely shaped potatoes. We will grow them again.

We will feed potatoes and onions and walnut ketchup to these impressionable wee ones (and anyone else who may be interested).