While shopping today, I noticed something that surprised me. This may have been the case for a long time because I don't buy a lot of nuts other than pistachios, but pistachios and peanuts were the only nuts in the store that came in the shell, or hull. There were dozens of types of nuts available in the grocery store, but all of them had been shelled already, and I could even buy pistachios that had already been shelled if I wanted to. Who wants to eat nuts that have already been shelled? I've been watching the squirrels abscond with all of the peanuts that I put in the bird feeder and was thinking of buying them some other types of nuts to store away for the winter, but there weren't any. Oh, I am sure that I can find nuts that are still in the shell but I would have to drive to another town or buy them online, and that just seems strange to me. Buying nuts for squirrels is a spur of the moment thing, since it's kind of nutty if you think about it.
With the mention of nuts in a shell, walnut comes to my mind. It is the favorite nut of my husband because walnut is reminiscent of his younger days when he would be keeping walnuts in his dresser to have some snack after the yuletide season. So it has become a tradition for him to buy a pack of walnut before Christmas and make it a part of the dinner table display. Speaking of shelled nuts like pistachios, macadamia and almonds, people are getting lazier so they shelled even watermelon seeds now. We always buy cans of shelled watermelon seeds whenever we would go to the Duty Free shop, that's where it is available.
Almonds are in the shells also, but I would not give almonds to squirrels. I give my squirrels bread that has gone stale. I had not thought about nuts but we eat them as fast as they come into the house.
Here, the squirrels have to stock up for the winter, and nuts stock better than things that will get wet and moldy, like bread. Almonds are not sold in the shell at either of our two grocery stores. Just pistachios and peanuts. They eat the shelled nuts on the spot; the only ones they take away are those in the shell.
I can usually find nuts in the shell from around Thanksgiving thru Christmas. However; they are not cheap. And shelled watermelon seeds? I have never heard of them before. I would love to try some just out of curiosity. Most of the year the only nuts we find in the shell here are the pistachios and peanuts.
My town used to have many black walnut trees scattered about in yards and along side streets. We lost many due to the price of walnut wood, making them more valuable as lumber. Storms took out more, but a few still remain. When I was a child, the nuts often went to waste, being raked up and dumped in trash heaps. My gramps would ask people if he could have the walnuts if he gathered them off the ground. Most were only too happy to get rid of them. Then, he would dry them on the roofs of sheds in his yard. When the husks got dry and black, he would husk them and put the husked walnuts in buckets. This husking chore became my job when I got big enough. I would spread the dry nuts on a stretch of hard ground, put on a pair of rubber boots, then walk over the nuts to loosen and peel off as much of the husk as I could. Then, I would don a pair of gloves and peel off the dried husks. Even with gloves on, my hands still turned a dark walnut brown from the stain. This was before our TV days. So, gramps wiled away the long, cold nights cracking and picking out the nut meats, which he put in fruit jars. Jars of the nuts were used by my granny in her Christmas baking, as well as my mom and aunt. But some of the jars of nuts would disappear. The picked out nuts were in demand by people who liked them but didn't want the extra work involved. Gramps would show up at his favorite saloon, armed with fruit jars full of black walnut meats, and drink the night away without spending a cent. And that's my nutty story.
Sometimes feed stores have the whole peanuts for the squirrels, and you can get these cheaper than the ones at the grocery store. They come in large barrels, as well as sunflower seeds, and other mixtures to put out for birds or squirrels. I used to by both my peanuts and sunflower seeds from the feed store when i was shopping there. The Tractor Supply Store (not sure of the name) that you were mentioning in another thread probably has at least some of these. I really enjoy having the unshelled nuts, too, and it was always a part of the holiday traditions when I was growing up. The stores had big bins of loose nuts, some mixed, and then bins of each kind; so you could mix them as you preferred. We had a nut serving dish that was made from a slice of tree that was hollowed out inside, and still had the bark on the outside, and there was a little holder in the center for the little nut cracking tools. Mostly, now the ones that I see in the stores are already shelled, and it they do have the whole ones, they are bagged and expensive. I did get fresh almonds from Amazon, and those were delicious, and they were already shelled, too.
Im lazy, I like my nuts shelled but you are right Ken, Ive only seen the pistachios and peanuts in shells. I do remember walnuts coming in shells though but havent seen them like that lately. We grow some nuts here in Fresno, especially pistachios and yet they are all sooo expensive!!
I love pistachio and other nuts. When they are on sale I get them and my Mother and I munch on them daily till we demolish the whole bag. I got the shelled pistachios on sale and I liked it! Shelled nuts are good and fresh too. Love them on sale and I and Mother eat them and don't share them at all. We don't have any squirrels here in Hawaii, but we have pigeons and they eat anything you give them. We love nuts and can't wait to get them on sale.
It's that time of year. The stores now have bins of nuts of all kinds. These days I buy those that are already shelled.
Yes I have also found that nuts in their shells are not available until the holiday season starts, except for pistachios. Nuts are expensive but so very good for you!
A trip to my local supermarket this morning revealed lots of nuts. Anyway, apart from the shoppers, there were bags of nuts all over the place, including unshelled walnuts, brazils and almonds. These only appear at this time of year. Nuts are indeed expensive, at least in certain parts of the world. I remember coming back from a holiday in Sri Lanka carrying two huge bags of cashews that cost us pennies. We used them for months, throwing them into curries, snacking on them with a glass of beer and almost reaching the point of cashew overload.
Now that it's coming up on Christmas, there are bags of nuts in the stores, still in the shell. After Christmas though, they'll be gone.
The beauty of nuts was that it gives you something to do with your hands while sitting around the living room with good friends, providing a snack, but without constantly shoveling food into your mouth. Today, fewer people sit together in a living room, but are instead behind a computer, by themselves, and the act of having to shell nuts just gets in the way. So when they eat nuts, they buy them already shelled, and the whole supply is gone in five minutes, which is not enough time to hold a good conversation.