Walnut trees

About twenty five years ago, my father and I planted twenty small walnut twigs from the Missouri Conservation Department.
Two of these twigs developed into tall walnut trees in the old orchard at the farm. This year they were loaded with walnuts.
At $11 per hundred pounds of hulled nuts, I ascertained that our crop was probably valued at less than $5 total. But I picked up a couple of buckets full, spread them in our driveway to be hulled by frequent hits by the car and truck, then we carefully shelled them with a special heavy duty nutcracker. Enough to make the Apple Walnut Relish in the above mentioned recipe.

A connection to the earth and to harvest - be it ever so small!