Hazelnuts, walnuts and chestnuts ready to crack or roast. The hazelnuts on the left still need extracting from their husks. If the don’t ‘roll’ out easily or they have some of the husk still attached, or they have a tiny hole then they will be no good and need discarding.
The black walnuts are really good. When they are ripe and come off the tree the husks become a soggy black staining mess which needs to be cleaned off – not an easy task. I’ve always read that you have to wait to this stage to harvest them but we found that if you got to them just before this stage then the green husk could be easily and cleanly peeled off. Once they have been aired and dried the nuts inside taste just as good and it’s a lot less mess and work. Beware if you are handling the walnuts once the husks have gone black they really stain!
Although we strive to make everyday special, and to some extent different; however there are some seasonal tasks which ‘frame’ the day. It’s not exactly a daily task but chopping kindling and bringing in firewood for the next few days is one of those and is always a satisfying task. With frozen ground underfoot and the warm winter morning sunshine raising a sweat; it’s a great way to start the day preparing the fuel, and then end the day (well at least start the evening, as it gets dark about 6.00 pm here at the moment) indoors with the hot glow of a roaring fire lighting up the room.
At the house enjoying the Italian sunshine. The forecast was for heavy cloud all day; but as is often the case, the mountains break through the cloud and we have clear blue skies.
The house in full sunshine
Getting ready to chop the kindling
Firewood done
I’ve been busy getting firewood ready so we can use less gas. We try to keep the use of fossil fuels to a minimum by using firewood when we can. The house has very thick walls, useful in the summer as it stays cool, but needs some heat in the sub-zero winter temperatures. While we’ve been away we have just kept some electric heating set to keep the frost off, but they were set so low I don’t think they came on. When we got here the temperature in the house ranged from 1.5℃ to 2.8℃, but fortunately the pipes were all OK.
Wood burning is not perfect because of the particulate pollution, and we need to invest in a new wood burner at some point. That will improve the efficiency of the fire but only marginally reduce the particulates.
Using less gas, and electricity to some extent, obviously reduces our carbon footprint; but also importantly reduces the need to import fossil fuels from dubious states, particularly Russia and is a small way we can help Ukraine in these difficult times. This and driving slowly which uses less fuel; reducing CO2, saving us money and reducing imports from dubious regimes; win, win, win.
We also want to think about whether we are in a position to provide help to Ukrainian refugees by providing accommodation to a family either here in Italy or in the UK. I am always conscious of effectively being a guest in our Italian home località so I will find out what the neighbours think of having a Ukrainian family living here. It will make coming here different so is not a straightforward decision.
Our Vegetable seeds arrived today which will hopefully maker us self-sufficient in vegetables and tomatoes (technically a the fruit) for the year.
We will also be looking to buy some fruit trees to plant (which of course won’t produce any fruit for 2-3 years). However we have quite an established orchard which did vey well last year. In particular Victoria plums and some other old varieties of plum as well, and Discovery, Cox’s and Russet apples. We also had a good crop of walnuts and hazelnuts in Italy; we have hazelnuts in the hedgerows here but the squirrels always beat us to them so we don’t get any of those. We have both English and Black walnut trees planted here in the UK but it will be a few years before they crop. Together with the fruit and vegetables we grow ourselves, and some responsible and sustainable foraging, we should not need to buy very much from the shops this year. Saving journeys to the shops, food miles and chemicals (we don’t spray our fruit or vegetables). We will try different environmentally friendly methods of control so look out for details of our success or otherwise in later posts throughout the year. It’s all good for us and for the environment!
If you look closely you will see a pack of wild flowers (pollinators mix). That’s for our bees!
