Country life
Early autumn
Denis Wood
Apples be ripe and nuts be brown Petticoats up and trousers down.
This ribald jingle, which I think must come from one of Theodore Powys's books — but I cannot find it — reminds us of the approach of autumn.
Although the high apple season is still some way off when Blenheim, Cox and Orleans Renette are picked late in October and ritually stored before being brought to the table between November and March; there is a special freshness in earlier apples picked and eaten from the tree. Of these the crimson Devonshire Quarrendon and Wor cester are highly decorative; but the two best for eating may be Charles Ross, large, handsome, green-yellow with red stripes; and James Grieve, smaller and of strikingly golden colour hanging on the trees before the leaves fall. Filberts and cob nuts — those spared to us by the squirrels — will be ready now. The filbert is corylus maxima, its nuts are longer and proportionately narrower than those of the cob and set in longer husks. Their flavour is said by some connoisseurs to be the better of the two kinds. Perversely the Kentish cob is a filbert, its other name being Lamberts Filbert. Among others there is the Red Skinned Filbert, Aveline Rouge. The true cob is Cosford which typically has the husk open showing the nut within.
Walnuts are harvested when they fall to the ground or can easily be shaken off the trees with long poles; and scrubbed to remove the fibres in the crevices of the shells which, if allowed to remain, would provide footholds for fungus. The nuts are then bleached in chloride of lime and washing soda for 2 or 3 minutes only, and then drained and dried in a single layer. They can then be stored in earthenware crocks in alternate layers of salt, or better a mixture of salt and coconut fibre, and kept in a cellar until required.
I cannot find what particular varieties of walnut are still available in this country. The East Mailing Research Station told me in 1972 that their very interesting work on walnuts had ceased because they could see no prospect that selected varieties would be a commercial proposition. Most of the best ones came from France; among them Fertilis, thin shell, well sealed, well filled and of very good flavour; Mayette with nuts well sealed and a thicker shell; and Franquette with well sealed and well filled shells. Some of these are probably grown in the Isere district of France and, in the Dordogne, I have come across walnut oil which gives a faint aftermath of nuttiness to a salad dressing. Here too I drank a walnut liqueur which is made also in Italy in Frascati near Rome, where it is said to cure every known illness.
Previous page
