A Sunday Drive and a New Foraging Find

It was a beautiful, sunny day here yesterday. We had a carry in at church. The theme was October fest. Iris at Sting My Heart gave me her great great grandma's potato salad recipe. It was delicious!

After lunch we went to the Pumpkin Festival parade. The festival is a big deal around these parts and it was a long parade. There was a marching band, beauty queens, old cars, horses, fire trucks (with out sirens on! YES!) and more pee wee football players and cheerleaders than I have ever seen in my life! Nolan and Lydia (Kellen went to the races with Papaw) grabbed bunches of candy, and Vivian was enthralled with all the activity.

When the parade was over, we couldn't get out of town the way we normally go because of the other traffic. So, we decided to try a different way, we had heard about. Does that sound strange?

We have lived here a year and are still are learning roads that are very near our house. If you were new to this area you would understand. No road runs just E to W or N to S or straight in any direction for that matter. I literally have been on roads that make a compass spin in circles. The roads are fairly well mapped. The maps use number names. Most of the back hills roads here are physically not marked at all and if they are marked it is with word names. It has been interesting trying to find places here!

Coming home from town, we missed the road that brought us up to our ridge. We ended up on another road we know well. The kids were sleeping and it was a beautiful day for a drive, so we decided to head around the ridge and try to find where the new way connected from the other side. Coming from the other side it was much easier. In finding the new way, we also found a wild food I had been keeping an eye out for: Black Walnuts. (not my photo)



You would think that we would have plenty of black walnuts, living on 100 acres of woods, but I have seen very few. The ones I have seen are either not producing well or something is getting there before I do.

Along this road there were two large trees. We picked up all that were in the ditches and on the road, but I didn't go up into the field where the trees were. We found almost two brown bags full. (I always have bags in the car for occasions like this and for Aldi.)

They still have the outer husks on so once that is removed and the nuts are shelled I will have a significantly smaller amount, but still, I am thrilled. I also am very thankful for our nutcracker. Black walnuts are very hard!

I have a lot of work to do this week. The apples are still waiting and now there are nuts to process. I am not complaining. Actually, I am excited. Finding and using free food is kind of a rush! :)