This winter with all the snow pushing down the bushes and wild berries I noticed a funky looking tree standing in the back of our property. It stands about 25 feet high and with no leaves and the branches reaching skyward it looked like a gothic cross. I did not pay too much attention to it until I noticed this spring that it is loaded with some kind of fruit... but I don't know what kind of a tree it is.. and can we eat the fruit or melon whatever it may be?
Search internet using botanical name for pages like this to come up. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juglans_regia
I don't want to get into botanical nomeclature but Juglans is the botanical name for walnuts. Juglans regia is the English walnut or common walnut or Persian walnut.
The nuts are probably already dropping, but they're not ready yet. I have one of these overhanging my property, and have been reading up on it a lot lately. It's not really until about September to November that they'll really start dropping off. Collect them and let them dry in a bucket until they turn black. Then you can peel the blackened husks off to reveal standard, edible, common walnuts. Then you need to leave them in a bowl for a couple of months to air dry. NB: The husks contain juglone, which stains fingers more than you'd believe. I stepped on 2 last week to crack them, then peeled the juicy green husks off, just to see how they were doing. Soon all of my fingers were turning a mustard yellow. By night, they were black all over as if I'd spilled dark brown ink all over my hands. It's a week later, and nothing has removed it. It's rubbed off most areas just from skin rubbing away, but around my cuticles, and in the damaged places where I habitually bite my fingers it's gotten worse. It looks like I have black ink spots. Note that the fruit wasn't blackened yet - it was still green and the juice watery and clear. There aren't many solvents that can get through juglone stains, so I just have to wait it out. Also of interest to me (and I collected a bunch of bruised nuts this morning that my gardener knocked down this past week) is walnut ink. You can collect a bunch of the fallen nuts now - as they're not even ripe yet - and simmer them for a few days - not quite at a boil. The rinds will oxidize and turn jet black. They'll also turn the water black. You can poke them to cause the rinds to fall away and crumble apart. If you do this in a cast iron pot, and/or throw in some iron nails, it aids in the oxidation and makes darker ink. When done, pour the soup through cheesecloth or nylons into a mason jar to strain out the nuts and pulp. You can resimmer the ink to thicken it to whatever level you desire. You'll get anything from a dark brown wash - great for paper and craft antiquing and water-color washes - to a thick, nearly black ink, suitable for manuscript-style work. It's been used since ancient times for this. You can also dye clothing with it, and stain wood as well. Neat tree! Black walnut is even better for this, and makes a richer, darker ink.
As per this page: Today, they are commonly called "English" walnuts, in reference to the English merchant marines whose ships once transported the product for trade to ports around the world.
Hey thanks everyone for the great information from all. Now I'll have to cut through the wild rose hips, stinging nettles and blackberries to get to the tree. cheers.
