Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Woman vs. Tree

A perennial state of being for the female woodworker, of course. But this one really drove me nuts.
Oh, Alf, what a wag you are... No? No. Okay, don't throw things.

Yes, the annual effort to beat the local tree rat squirrel population to the nutty punch is complete. Armed with walking stick and rust hunting haversack (seconded for the purpose), I tackled the three nut trees here at Alf Towers. One of which is blessed with red nuts, as you can see. My, those things love to hide. You'd have thought a bright red nut might be quite noticeable. Not so. The blessed tree has red leaves, doesn't it...? I bet I'll go past there tomorrow and see at least half a dozen I've missed. Ah well, to the squirrels the leftovers; I'm not completely heartless.

Not having the squirrels natural capacity to climb trees, all I can say is thank goodness hazel's natural bendiness. Means you can hook the branches down low enough to actually reach them - hence the walking stick - but some are getting a bit strapping now, and it looks like a bit of coppicing will be on the cards this winter. What fun.
Anyway, the weigh-in revealed just over a kilo (or 2lbs odd) of nutty goodness. I am pleased.

If only I ate the darn things, I'd be ecstatic...

3 comments:

  1. You did well, Alf. The squirrels always beat us to the nuts on our Walnut tree :-(

    Cheers ;-)

    Paul Chapman

    ReplyDelete
  2. We have an oak tree in our front yard. It is only 25 or 30 years old so I'm not trying to cut it down yet :) We do get a lot of acorns in the lawn but I have never heard of a good use for them so have never gathered them up. Do you know if they are useful?

    Thanks,

    Rick in Oakville (Canada)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Rick, don't know personally, but a quick Google suggests they can be eaten - if correctly prepared. Used in Korean cooking quite a bit, it seems. I believe pigs are very keen on them, if you have one of your acquaintance :) I assume caveats may apply depending on the type of oak tree...?

    ReplyDelete

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