Nuts!!

I love nuts, and eating nuts is one of my top choices of snack options. I love Brazil nuts, but I am not supposed to eat too many of these because they have a very high ratio of omega 6 (bad fats) to omega 3 fats (the good ones). One of the best nuts to eat are walnuts, which have a much better ratio of omega 6 to omega 3 fatty acids.

I’m away from home on a family holiday this week (Aug 2012), staying in a beautiful converted barn with walnut trees growing outside the front door. I have never thought about how walnuts grow before, so I love having these trees right outside the door. They look like horse chestnut trees, and the walnuts grow looking like green ‘fruits’.

This first pic shows the leaves and ‘fruit’.

Now this second picture shows the walnut cut open. It’s obviously not ripe yet, but you can clearly see this will be a walnut. The tree is much like a horse chestnut, and just like conkers, these nuts will ripen and fall in September…though the owners of this property tell me the squirrels get the lot (6 large trees!!) before they manage to harvest any nuts for themselves!