Scavenging for an autumnal lockdown bounty
Coronavirus travel restrictions mean Kiwis can’t enjoy day trips or weekends away but lockdown can be a chance to rediscover hidden gems closer to home. Cantabrians explore their neighbourhoods as part of a series called Round Our Way.
It’s the thrill of the chase. The scent of adventure. The excitement of the unknown.
Heavy footsteps are definitely not wanted here. Instead, the lightest of light footfalls is required, edging around the fallen, fading leaves carpeting the damp earth below the skeleton of the tree.
It takes a minute or two to get in tune with the task in hand. Sometimes one will be brazen, plonked proudly on the ground, shouting out, ‘here I am, can’t you see me?’.
Others require subtlety, patience and acumen to scout out: a careful side-to-side swooshing of the sole of your shoe through scrunchy leaves followed by a ginger settling of your step through the pile to the reserve floor in the hope of feeling a round seed pod below.
The crunch of splintering shell underfoot from a badly executed manoeuvre is sickening.
These walnuts can be tricky.
Searching for walnuts has become our go-to activity during the weeks of lockdown, a pleasant escape in the fresh air during the sublime days of a Christchurch autumn.
On many afternoons the air has been warm and still in the walnut grove, with shafts of sunshine slicing through yellow, orange and red trees.
But on some occasions the nor’wester has been busy at work, maddening the desiccated leaves into swirling tornadoes and sending walnut tree branches into a frenzy.
The harvest has been richer on these days – walnuts dropping everywhere in their green or black pods
We’ve learnt about the different types of walnut trees – those that provide export quality fruit, those that disappoint. And we’ve had to grudgingly go elsewhere when others have been there before us.
So yes, there are walnut trees in our neighbourhood. Yours too. But telling people where is just not the done thing. Would a whitebaiter give away their best possie?
We have bags of them now, which we’re giving away to friends. They look amazing. Feel great.
Might be mouth-watering even, for all I know. Ironically, I can’t stand the taste of the damn things.
The crunch of splintering shell underfoot from a badly executed manoeuvre is sickening.