Whats in Season: Walnuts
Walnuts are a quintessential element of the holiday season for many people around the world. Just the sight of them evokes a festive air, leading many households to display bowls of in-shell nuts and accompanying nutcrackers as decorative elements during the holidays. Of course, classic holiday confections like fudge, brownies and all sorts of cookies and cakes, including fruit breads, rely on walnuts. Shelled walnuts mixed with other nuts and spiced star on holiday tables along with other nibbles and festive spirits. Walnuts are equally delicious when prepared as sweet or savory.
We are fortunate that walnuts are a significant part of agricultural cultivation in our area. The nuts are harvested in early fall, an arduous task mainly accomplished these days by a swarm of mechanical shakers and harvesters. The nuts are then transported to facilities to be dried and processed before being shipped all over the world. At our local farmers’ markets and fruit stands, you can often find “fresh” walnuts, that haven’t gone to the dryer. Still moist and almost chewy, these fresh walnuts are considered a seasonal treat in France and Italy—a harbinger of winter.
Walnuts have a long history in California, starting with the walnut trees planted by Spanish missionaries in the 1700s. The first important commercial planting, in the 1870s, was around Goleta, in Santa Barbara County. From there, the plantings were continued southward, almost to the Mexican border. In some areas of Orange County, the walnut orchards grew to the edge of the Pacific Ocean, a sight hard to imagine today.
But, as Southern California urbanized after World War II, pressure grew to use the orchard land for housing, and walnut production shifted to the less expensive land in the Central Valley and Northern California, including Napa and Contra Costa counties.
By 2000, the dramatic shift of walnut cultivation to Central and Northern California was in place. Long gone were the groves along the Pacific, as well as those nestled around San Francisco and San Pablo bays. Thankfully, the California walnut flourished in the deep soils of the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys, and today these two areas of California account for 99% of the nation’s walnut production, and 75% of the entire world’s output, covering more than 400,00 acres.
Walnuts are equally delicious when prepared as sweet or savory. I keep the candied walnuts you’ll find my recipe for on Page 58 of this issue on hand during the holidays for serving with pre-dinner apéritifs or tossing into a colorful winter salad.
