Going Nuts

Never underestimate a squirrel. They like to hang out on the sides of the road where a walnut tree drops those big walnut bombs and wait for cars to roll over them and then they run out to gather the nuts.

It’s also where they die, run over by a car.

So whenever I ride by on my bike I) am careful not to hit a walnut bomb and topple over, my front wheel torqued by the impact and 2) I’m careful not to squish a squirrel, and 3) I remember once collecting walnuts as a kid.

It might have been my Little House on the Prairie period, one that lasted over ten years, approx. age 8 – 18. This is when I experimented with natural dyes and woodland crafts. Anyway, I collected a paper sack of half-decomposed walnut balls. Somehow I thought that was the nut, or maybe I knew the nut was inside. Nevertheless, I picked up the whole thing and brought them home an put them under my bed. So that when I was doing sit-ups, a hundred every night before going to bed, I was accosted by worms crawling across my carpet.

I naturally freaked out.

After scrambling, I discovered the source was the bag of nuts under my bed. I immediately put the whole thing in the trash in the garage. That’s the last time I collected nuts.

Fast forward to Germany last year this time. All over the country the populace was foraging nuts. You don’t see that in the US where the only ones going after the big green balls are the ground squirrels. In fact, I don’t even know if you can eat walnuts from the North American black walnut tree.*Just Googled, apparently they are edible. https://www.botanicalartspress.com/blog/2014/9/26/black-walnut

Again, not sure if this is the difference between American indifference or European peasant roots—but it all seems like a lot of work for what one can easily buy at the grocery.

Still, I might join the squirrels this week in looking for nuts.