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Nope, sorry Minnesota, never seen those before but it's hard to gauge their size although with the frames they look about the size of a grapefruit?? Frames look great............do tell us a bit more

butternuts or white walnuts i think they are also called? not sure if im right though

I've never heard them called White walnuts. The tree and it's leaves are nearly identical to the Black Wallnut tree.

The soft, fuzzy, sticky, green outer husk of the butternut has a strong eucalyptus smell, and if you handle them without gloves, the sticky sap on them sticks to your fingers like glue and is almost impossible to wash off. If you chose to peal that outer soft, fuzzy, sticky, green husk without gloves, your hands will get sticky as well as it will also stain your skin a dark greenish black...my girlfriend actually did this that day of out first date and it took about four days to wear away the staining of her hands, she tried lemon juice and tomato juice and every kind of soap there was, GoJo and other mechanics handcleaning solutions...nothing worked. It stains your skin just like a wood stain, stains wood. it has to be worn off.

OK, back to the Butternuts...After a month or so out in the weather, That outer husk dries out and falls off(it then feels like a thick dry leaf), then you are left with a Hard shell that looks just like a Peach pit and is the same size of a Large peach pit. It is one of the most difficult shells to break, that I've experienced.

The Nut meat has a mild buttery flavor when roasted. The Nut meat is about the same size as a small Pecan. And is shaped like a Pecan, but has no ridges or bumps...It is smooth. the Butternut trees are hardy and grow fast and the lumber is prised by some furniture makers, it is a softer wood with a buttery color.

i was kinda right! yeah i thought they were nuts, in one of my books they give you all the different common names and white walnuts was one of them, its probably not in general usage but may have been called that at some point in history , sometimes i wish i wasnt such a plant geek

Yep, okay on butternuts now..........thank goodness for google!

ElizabethBinary wrote: Last night I spend curled up in his arms just looking in his eyes. It was so sweet. Never met a man that actually enoyed doing that before. This one is for keeps!

...im not jealous, honest

Me either 'sigh' I would be lucky if I got an elephantine snore in my earole if I did that I do however, adore him

Aww heehee. He's a sweetheart. 'cept last night he bashed me in the eye in his sleep. He is the first man I met that liked drawing me bubble baths and telling me he loves me all the time and likes holding me and tells everyone in earshot how lucky he is to be with me. It's so wonderful and really helps calm me down because I tend to be a bit more...hyper?... than he is.

I'm taking him on the back of my bike this Sunday (although I feel bad because my pillion pegs are PINK) and we're going to the beach to have a picnic at sunrise. I work nights normally so this will be a challenge for me.

Ahhh d'oh, I'm bragging.

Also, as I looked for that boxing smilie... did you guys know we have dirty smilies??

I do but it took me ages to realise that we did, for months I thought all we had was what you could see on the left hand side of the screen

ElizabethBinary wrote: Also, as I looked for that boxing smilie... did you guys know we have dirty smilies??

Yes - but I never realised until I put my cursor over them and read what they were called! They aren't always actually apparent what they are doing.

Minnesota wrote:I've never heard them called White walnuts. The tree and it's leaves are nearly identical to the Black Wallnut tree.

The soft, fuzzy, sticky, green outer husk of the butternut has a strong eucalyptus smell, and if you handle them without gloves, the sticky sap on them sticks to your fingers like glue and is almost impossible to wash off. If you chose to peal that outer soft, fuzzy, sticky, green husk without gloves, your hands will get sticky as well as it will also stain your skin a dark greenish black...my girlfriend actually did this that day of out first date and it took about four days to wear away the staining of her hands, she tried lemon juice and tomato juice and every kind of soap there was, GoJo and other mechanics handcleaning solutions...nothing worked. It stains your skin just like a wood stain, stains wood. it has to be worn off.

OK, back to the Butternuts...After a month or so out in the weather, That outer husk dries out and falls off(it then feels like a thick dry leaf), then you are left with a Hard shell that looks just like a Peach pit and is the same size of a Large peach pit. It is one of the most difficult shells to break, that I've experienced.

The Nut meat has a mild buttery flavor when roasted. The Nut meat is about the same size as a small Pecan. And is shaped like a Pecan, but has no ridges or bumps...It is smooth. the Butternut trees are hardy and grow fast and the lumber is prised by some furniture makers, it is a softer wood with a buttery color.

Soon as I read that bit about staining I thought it must be related to walnut! In Europe we just have 'walnuts' which I think are what are referred to as black walnuts in the US. I always wondered why and now I know!

Does the whole thing drop off the tree, outer staining husks and all, or were you picking direct off the tree? i.e. our (black) walnuts outer husks open on the tree then the nut falls to the ground - generally we don't pick them direct off the tree unless there is a risk of the squirrels taking them all, in which case I wear rubber gloves!

ElizabethBinary wrote:Aww heehee. He's a sweetheart. 'cept last night he bashed me in the eye in his sleep.

Tee Hee - I'm glad to know I'm not the only one who does that kind of thing. I gave my OH a hefty kick in the shins the other night - I was dreaming that I kicked my son at the time! lol!

Millymollymandy wrote: Does the whole thing drop off the tree, outer staining husks and all
generally we don't pick them direct off the tree unless there is a risk of the squirrels taking them all, in which case I wear rubber gloves!

yes, they drop as they were on the tree...that is also when you know when they are ripe...they will all drop in a one or two day period..then the squirrels will have them gone in 3 or 4 more days....timing is everything

Just in case anyone reading this thread wanted ideas:

I ended up going out and sourcing a lychee tree which I planted. I made up a card that says "Should this tree through our marriage bear as as much fruit as the number of smiles you have given me, we shall never go hungry. I love you."

Lychees are his favourite fruit and I was the one that introduced them to him, so I found it fitting and hopefully he'll like it.

Apparently lychee trees can bear up to 600 pounds (300ish kilos!) of fruit per year... that's a lot of smiles!!!

I plan on growing it myself and giving him the fruit from it. Very fitting, I think, of love.

Funny isn't it, yesterday I watched our resident red squirrel dig up a buried walnut out of one of my flower beds! (snows gone now thank goodness). I don't begrudge them some of the nuts, just not all of them!