Does anyone have a walnut tree? need advice please....

[surprise]

We have a walnut tree which last year had about 80 walnuts on it for the first time ever. However, we obviously left it too late to pick them and they all disappeared, I imagine squirrels had them. So, does anyone know when I should be picking them, and also when/how to pickle them? Thanks.

i have 2 walnut trees.
weve had a good crop off of the big one one year... but not every year at all. the year before the good year we picked them all up from the ground (did that both years actually, never picked them at all) but the green husk thingies were really hard work to get off and they went all manky.
the good year, the husks just fell off and the nuts were lovely.
i just assumed it was a fickle sort of tree...

never thought of pickling

I will follow with interest so BUMP.

I don't have one but there is one in the street, they fall on the ground and rot every year. This year I am going all Hugh FW and am going to forage

amphibimum I need you on google - sorry for crashing

god flame, youre so rude

To pickle them you need to get them down while they are unripe - fairly soon I would think

My tree is too tall so I can't pick mine

You would need to pickle them in the outer green husk

what are they like pickled? i dont think ive ever seen a pickled walnut.
you pickle them inside the husk? how does that work then?
i like em nutty. fresh, or whatever nuts are.

My dad loves pickled walnuts - usually has a jar at Christmas, so thought I'd do him some homemade ones this year. Basically they're black and look like something that's gone off! However, they taste okay - not wildly exciting but pleasant. Def better than they look. Thanks for the advice KatyMac - I shall be sending DS up the tree to pick them!

I've had a walnut tree at each of my last 2 houses and have never got a single nut before the squirrels!

Yep. You need to be pretty damn quick to get them before the squirrels ('bloody tree-rats' to call them by my Dad's name for them).

I have a lovely walnut tree that is squirrel-planted

Yes, you should pick them green and not too big - so now I would guess - if you want to pickle them. There's also something about pricking them. My SIL sent me an article once on how to do it but have forgotten. We just normally wait till they fall off the tree and in so doing, split the green outer bit off and the nut is inside. That happens mid Sept - Mid Oct if I remember correctly.

Two years ago we had a bumper crop - over 7000 nuts from one tree. Last year it was rubbish. Hardly any. This year it looks better than last year but still not brilliant.

my mum gave us a bottle of something called "vin de noix" which involves strong alcohol, sugar and unripe walnuts. very nice. no idea how she made it but might be worth googling if you don't like the idea of pickled ones.

ooh lulu that sounds more like it! Have picked half a kilo and started the pickling process - found the recipe here www.davidgregory.org/pickled_walnuts.htm