In this Issue...

• Black Walnuts prove delicious
• A Nut Growers Manual being written
• Gingko extracts
• Photos Wanted
• General Rowley Reports
• Participate in Spring Planting '88
• Getting Seed and Stock
• Winter Meeting Report

Black Walnuts prove delicious

Diane Fraser of Gloucester 744-6810 tells of collecting black walnuts from Mile Circle inRockcliffe this fall to use in her family cookery. The first batch's husks were peeled fresh. Dianewore kitchen gloves to do the job, but Jean Osside, her mother, did not believe them necessary.Jean's hands and nails were stained a beautiful, indelible dark brown - just in time for her to go toa square dance that evening. Jean is now a firm believer in the tenacity of black walnut stain!

A second batch of nuts was put aside and the husks allowed to rot. This method proved to bemessy as well, dribbling stain onto the floor. Also on the downside, a note of caution for thosewith respiratory sensitivity: some emanation from the rotting husks, maybe fungus spores,apparently irritated Diane's son Cameron's asthma.

Her father, Bob Osside, cracked enough of the dehusked seed in one hour in his basement vise tofill five 500 g yoghourt containers with meats. Diane reports that most of the pieces were quitelarge. Bob used them in his own recipes to make tantalizing confections such as Black WalnutChocolate Fudge and Black Walnut Ice Cream Sauce. The sauce calls for an excess of brownsugar, which makes it slightly crunchy. He has also used black walnut as a snappy substitute foralmonds and cashews in chicken and pork curries.

Plans are to also try black walnuts in a peach chutney recipe in the future. Sounds delicious!Lets hear from others also trying the walnuts, or butternuts, hickories, hazels, gingkos etc. - wecould be on our way to a second Chapter cookbook.

A Nut Growers Manual being written

The Chapter's Decennial Project (believe it or not, the Chapter's first meeting was held way backin 1979!) is to publishA Nut Growers Manual for Eastern Ontarioby the end of this year. The manual will cover the basics of nut botany, horticulture andsilviculture for new or experienced grower alike. The manual will prove useful to the homegardener as much as to the grower of plantations, groves or orchards, and possible futurecommercial growers in this region.

The information will be gathered from our own members and from other experts in industry,government and university. The Committee of Past Chairs, which is responsible for the project,has already begun by drafting an annotated table of contents for the manual. The final table willinclude all the specific topics the manual must address, guiding the acquisition and organizationof the information that is expected to pour in. Mark Schaefer, our forestry expert, will be themanual's editor. He will prepare the final version of the manual's table of contents, which will bepublished in the next issue of the Nuttery. Also, he will stimulate the information inflow, andorganize digesting the information into the Manual's format.

The Nuttery office will electronically publish the manuscript, in a style similar to our Chaptercookbook. Electronic publishing requires considerable less effort than traditional publishingmethods, thereby allowing us to concentrate the major effort on gathering the information on nutgrowing. This balance of effort in favour of the stimulating process of information gathering overthe arduous process of composing the information will allow more people to participate in theproject because even a small contribution of time can have a big impact on the quality of the finalGrowers Manual.

Now is the time to get involved, to give guidance, to contribute technical information, or tovolunteer your services to help the editor. Call Mark Schaefer at Kanata 836-3703.

Gingko extracts

Bob Moodie sent in an article from Actualité, January 1988, which reports the discoveryof PAF in gingkos. This chemical has a number of medical uses, including treatment for asthma,several allergic reactions and anaphylactic shock. He is looking for more information on extractsfrom gingkos. If you are interested, call Bob at Kanata, 592-5991. The article will be put in theChapter's technical library, currently under the librarianship of Alec Jones, Ottawa 828-6459.

Photos Wanted for the Library

The Chapter's photograph collection has hundreds of photos, covering many aspects of nut treemanagement, as well as nearly 3 hours of VHS videotape. This graphic collection is seen as asource of illustrations for pamphlets, brochures, talks etc. It is available to all members throughour photo librarian Bob Scally. Bob is now preparing an index of the collection. If you havematerial to submit, or wish to use the library, call Bob at Kanata, 592-1745.

General Rowley Reports

Roger Rowley of Rockcliffe reports mixed success with his two 7-year-old Carpathian Walnuts:he gets fruit set on one branch of the pair, but the fruit later aborts. However, his hazel shrubberyis now some 15' high. He wants to talk with anyone knowing about these species, to ensure thebest cultivation is given his plants. Roger can be reached at 745-7770. It is likely that theChapter's technical library has information on these matters.

Participate in Spring Planting '88

Traditionally, the Chapter has arranged two silviculture days on the first two Saturdays of May atthe Baxter Nut Grove. These two field days serve to both advance the work of the Nut Grove andto give neophyte nut growers a chance of hands-on learning from the masters who manage thegrove.

This coming year, there will be two sites available for silviculture and horticulture exercise. TheSouth Nation Plantation will be the second one. At present it has only a nursery bed, but in 1988,we will begin to plant out Black Walnut into the plantation site. For more information, callGeorge Joiner re Baxter at Ottawa 749-2468, and call Irene Woolford re the South NationPlantation at Winchester 774-3385.

The Baxter Nut Grove is still missing a number of species from its list of planned plantings.If you can provide any of the missing species, please call George as soon as possible.(continued)

Getting Seed and Stock

Do you have surplus seed or stock to pass to other members? Do you want seed or stock ofparticular species or varieties that others may have to give? Write or phone the editor of theNuttery and it will be published as a Want Ad in the next issue, in time for the planting seasonthis spring. Spring is coming soon, with planting possible by late April. The seed you get or givemay need to be stratified. Do not wait. Get started right now!

Most members are interested in getting seed or stock to plant, so a reminder that seed and stockexchanges are held at every Chapter meeting.

Winter Meeting Report

The Winter meeting this year was held at the Citizen building on Baxter Road in Ottawa onJanuary 20th. About a dozen members, including at least one new member, were able to attend.Dur the mid-meeting break, the kitchen was open for coffee and several tasty nut cakes werepresented.

The Wednesday evening's meeting centered on two talks. Bob Scally updated information on thegrowth of Black Walnuts using techniques being tested by Fred Von Athelton in southernOntario. These show that the main difficulty the trees face is competition with grass while theyare seedlings. If the grass is completely removed, the young trees make fast growth and continueto stay ahead of others that started in grass. The second talk, by Alec Jones, explained the"Newfoundland Connection", a Chapter project to send nut seed to Newfoundland for anarboretum there. His text and slides illustrated the conditions of tree growing in westernNewfoundland. He explained that our Chapter helps the Newfoundland Department of ForestResources and Lands because the climatic zones of eastern Ontario and western Newfoundlandare very similar. The project is proving quite successful and should be continued.

During the break, the Nuttery editor, Hank Jones, demonstrated how his MacIntosh computer isused to publish the Nuttery. He also explained that the computer could help other Chapterprojects. He specially mentioned artificial intelligence programs for helping young memberslearn about and identify nu trees, indexing to Inventree, and recording the landscape design,including both text and maps, for the Baxter Nut Grove.

Thanks to Paul Bender for booking the hall, and to Kathleen Jones for providing the goodies.

Provided by ECSONG. Feel free to copy with a credit.