Walnuts What Walnuts

I grew up in the city. A small city of about 80,000 people but still far removed from country living. Every year while growing up during the Christmas season my parents went to the Peanut Store (complete with a live Mr. Peanut pacing in front of the store) and bought candy and nuts for the holidays. This was a real treat for us because this was the only time of year we had such luxuries. Each one of us, 9 counting my parents, had our favorite treat. The only one I really remember was my father's and his favorites were candy corn and bon bons. Mine was nuts. They always got a good variety of nuts and I don't remember any that I didn't like. They were always in the shell so we had to crack them with the nut crackers and had an accompanying pick to dig out the pieces too stubborn to fall out. There were always almonds, hazel nuts, pecans, Brazil nuts and my favorite of favorites the English walnut. None of these were too difficult even for a youngster even to crack.

During my tenure in the Air Force I married a good country girl from southern Ohio.The peanut store went out of business and like many kids we did not keep up all the family traditions. So the nuts at Christmas time became just a fond memory. After my discharge from the Air Force we lived in the city I grew up in but during the holidays we loved to visit the country where my wife's family still lived. Southern Ohio has a abundance of black walnut trees and there were several well producing trees in my in-laws yard. To those that are familiar with the black walnut, they are a nuisance in the fall if you have to mow the grass because they fall from the trees before the grass dies for the winter. So picking them up is a necessity. It is not uncommon for many people to gather them, choose a way to hull them, none of which is too fun. There is a reason they are called black walnuts. You can't hull black walnuts and hide it, your hands will give you away every time. So when we arrived for the holidays one year to my delight there were walnuts in a jar on the counter. I love to snack, I love nuts so I snacked on walnuts, black walnuts.

Not a big deal so you think, nor did I. I had no idea that black walnuts were any different to crack than the English walnuts I had grown up cracking and enjoying during my childhood. My mother-in-law, such a sweet lady, never said a word as the quantity in the jar dwindled. She didn't tell me, "Don't eat those, I plan to make a cake with them." Her lips were sealed. The holidays came and went. We had dessert but no black walnut cake not even nut filled brownies. I don't remember what we had but I know what we did not have.

It was not until on another visit on another holiday that I experienced how difficult cracking black walnuts is. I discovered that you do it outside, use a hammer and concrete block, that it must have taken literally hours and hours to fill a jar as my mother-in-law had. With my newly acquired knowledge I approached my mother-in-law and ask her why she hadn't said something the year I ate all of her walnuts. She just smiled. Never said a word but we got many laughs from it after that. She is in heaven now where I imagine the black walnuts are "no cracking required". Since then we have moved to southern Ohio and I have yet to be able to crack a jar full of black walnuts. My kids paid me back they always ate them as fast as I could crack them.

If you're watching your cholesterol, these nuts can help make your diet a whole lot tastier. The black walnut is very low in saturated fat, yet very high in polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats, which are the good fats that can lower bad cholesterol while maintaining good cholesterol.

Adding a few of these nuts to any dish can help boost its protein, iron and fiber content without adding sugar. They also make a nutritionally similar substitute for the tree nuts that are enjoyed in the now-popular and healthy Mediterranean diets.

You can even eat black walnuts for better overall cardiovascular health, as they contain large amounts of omega-3 fats, which help support cardiovascular function. http://www.nutsonline.com/nuts/walnuts/black.html