Wednesday, May 6, 2009

So... how might one harvest from this?

I'm watching some green walnuts falling off my tree, lately. They are usually bird-pecked or squirrel-bitten, and they are very tiny, say, 3/4 to 1 inch diameter.

However, I've found out that a few things can be made from green walnuts, sent to me by my good friend Kari Kiser over at The Erratic Sewer and Crafter, and I hope to at least make a syrupy candy out of a few of them. I have no idea how it will taste.

My looming problem, then, is how to harvest from a 65 foot walnut with a lower canopy at least 15 feet off the ground...

Any suggestions would be appreciated, but they cannot include A) sprouting wings, B) training my ducks, dog, family members to fly and harvest, C) hugging the tree and shaking vigorously, or D) any form of hired help.

3 comments:

Kari said...

Check out this article.
http://anrcatalog.ucdavis.edu/pdf/8005.pdf
They suggest a pvc poll with a rubber mallet.

When I was a kid on my grandparents avocado farm we had a long poll with a rope connected to clippers ( and a bag at the end to catch the avocado)I wonder if they have something similar at the farm supply stores.

Kari said...

I am watching Under the Tuscian Sun and they are harvesting olives with what looks like a hand rake onto netting laid out around the tree. If you duct tape one of those to the end of a pole it bet that would work for the nuts too.

Josh said...

Ooh, good ideas!