Once upon a time before the tyranny of small boys my wife and I enjoyed cooking together and listening to music. For the first time in I-don't-know-how-long this happened again, tonight long after the boys went to bed.
Truth be told, I only measured some flour and chopped some walnuts for the vegan muffins she's baking but still...
After chopping walnuts I proceeded to eat a few. I was struck by the familiar flavor for some reason, especially so. That said, me and the walnut have
a long history together. We have long been friend and foe since growing up in Kansas City -Liberty Missouri to be specific. My family lived on a hill at the intersection of N. Ridge and Walnut Street. Our backyard contained a bunch of Walnut trees. In fact the entire neighborhood was covered in walnut, buckeye and pine trees. This made for great fun and great annoyance when the nuts fell from the tree.
Walnuts fall from the tree with a fleshy green husk/skin around the nut. The flesh husk has distinctly sharp and unpleasant odor. If you've never seen a walnut in the wild they are about the size and color as a lime green tennis ball (a bit smaller) when they fall from the tree. They fall by the hundreds and form beds of ball bearings you'd lose your footing on. When they'd first fall all the kids in the 'hood would grab bats and hit them like baseballs or have walnut wars which was similar to a snowball fight. Bruises happened. Windows were broken. Tribes of young boys formed great bonds over the magically smelly walnut. That was the fun stuff.
Then the walnuts would begin to ripen and eventually rot. The green fleshy husk turns black, gets mushy and sorta slimy eventually leading to the exposure of the nut shell which looks like a walnut to most people. It was at this point that plagues of squirrels descended upon the neighborhood. This was precisely the time when my parents would make me and my brother pick up all of the rotting walnuts from the yard. Picking thousands of slimy, stinky, rotting walnuts was not a fantastic job. In fact it sucked. It took forever and those rat-squirrels would throw shells at us from the branches high above. Still such a distinct memory for me.
Much like family and place the walnut is a part of my ongoing narrative. It should come as no surprise my delight over this bitter sweet nut. Honestly, have you ever eaten a handful of walnuts and drank whole milk at the same time? The flavor is like sex, drugs and rock'n jazz all rolled up in a dizzy'ingly smooth package. Ho.ly.smokes! I do love the blessed walnut!
So I was thinking and I made a free association between milk and pbj's. I thought, how wonderful, right? For real, not much beats a glass milk and a peanut butter sandwich on toasted wheat. So I was thinking, milk would be good with walnuts, and I was wondering why I have never seen walnutbutter? For real, I am sure it exists somewhere but I've never seen it or heard of it. My wife thought it's due to a lack of oils in the walnut. Maybe it just doesn't "cream" up the way peanuts do? Who knows? I do know this, it would be magical.
So this is the long awaited business idea: Walnut Ridge brand WalnutButter, from my childhood to your kitchen. Walnut Ridge brand Walnutbutter is made from the finest organic walnuts grown on the sun soaked ridges of the great Missouri river bluff region. The label would be natural color with a old time-meets-new school vibe, monotone print, scrolled logo with graphical illustration of kids throwing walnuts under walnut trees, set upon a hill of course.
Walnut Ridge would make several different forms of WalnutButter. One would include an extra creamy version cut with flax seed oil. Another would be PeaChunk which would be a silky smooth peanut butter with large walnut chunks in it (seriously right? ..that would blow your f'n mind man!).
Ha, someday!
Ok, typos be damned, I am tired and going to bed. Goodnight ya'll
Btw, this was written to A Lazarus Taxon by Tortoise--super creative flow music.
Walnuts fall from the tree with a fleshy green husk/skin around the nut. The flesh husk has distinctly sharp and unpleasant odor. If you've never seen a walnut in the wild they are about the size and color as a lime green tennis ball (a bit smaller) when they fall from the tree. They fall by the hundreds and form beds of ball bearings you'd lose your footing on. When they'd first fall all the kids in the 'hood would grab bats and hit them like baseballs or have walnut wars which was similar to a snowball fight. Bruises happened. Windows were broken. Tribes of young boys formed great bonds over the magically smelly walnut. That was the fun stuff.
Then the walnuts would begin to ripen and eventually rot. The green fleshy husk turns black, gets mushy and sorta slimy eventually leading to the exposure of the nut shell which looks like a walnut to most people. It was at this point that plagues of squirrels descended upon the neighborhood. This was precisely the time when my parents would make me and my brother pick up all of the rotting walnuts from the yard. Picking thousands of slimy, stinky, rotting walnuts was not a fantastic job. In fact it sucked. It took forever and those rat-squirrels would throw shells at us from the branches high above. Still such a distinct memory for me.
Much like family and place the walnut is a part of my ongoing narrative. It should come as no surprise my delight over this bitter sweet nut. Honestly, have you ever eaten a handful of walnuts and drank whole milk at the same time? The flavor is like sex, drugs and rock'n jazz all rolled up in a dizzy'ingly smooth package. Ho.ly.smokes! I do love the blessed walnut!
So I was thinking and I made a free association between milk and pbj's. I thought, how wonderful, right? For real, not much beats a glass milk and a peanut butter sandwich on toasted wheat. So I was thinking, milk would be good with walnuts, and I was wondering why I have never seen walnutbutter? For real, I am sure it exists somewhere but I've never seen it or heard of it. My wife thought it's due to a lack of oils in the walnut. Maybe it just doesn't "cream" up the way peanuts do? Who knows? I do know this, it would be magical.
So this is the long awaited business idea: Walnut Ridge brand WalnutButter, from my childhood to your kitchen. Walnut Ridge brand Walnutbutter is made from the finest organic walnuts grown on the sun soaked ridges of the great Missouri river bluff region. The label would be natural color with a old time-meets-new school vibe, monotone print, scrolled logo with graphical illustration of kids throwing walnuts under walnut trees, set upon a hill of course.
Walnut Ridge would make several different forms of WalnutButter. One would include an extra creamy version cut with flax seed oil. Another would be PeaChunk which would be a silky smooth peanut butter with large walnut chunks in it (seriously right? ..that would blow your f'n mind man!).
Ha, someday!
Ok, typos be damned, I am tired and going to bed. Goodnight ya'll
Btw, this was written to A Lazarus Taxon by Tortoise--super creative flow music.
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