Food In the Yard

Over the years I’ve become familiar with plants that are edible, medicinal, useful, or just plain interesting to me. Part of the fun of moving to a new place is discovering what familiar plants grow in the area. I do this by observing plants through a cycle of their growing season.

As an example, I recently noticed this shell on my deck (probably left by a squirrel) and decided to look around to see where it might have come from. I noticed this tree (see photos), which has large, fuzzy, immature pods and slightly sticky branches that leave an odor and a stickiness on your fingers; I’ve experienced this before on new growth of walnut trees. And the leaves look similar to walnut trees I’ve known in the past too, so I suspect it’s a walnut tree (botanical name is Juglans spp.). I’ll update this post as we move into fall.

Wouldn’t it be great to have fresh walnuts 20’ from my door?!

(updated 9/6/2021) Well, it’s good I didn’t go out and buy that nutcracker—the squirrels ate every one of those nuts! (and I think they were walnuts)

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