Many Native American tribes used the indigenous black walnut in their cuisines the Apache were apparently especially fond of the nuts, mixing it into pemmican and eating the nuts fresh. Early New England settlers brought the Persian walnut to North America, where it gained prominence over the harder-to-hull black walnut. According to the California Walnut Board, Franciscan monks were the first to cultivate the nuts in California in the s.
By far, you are most likely to come across English walnuts at the market. They are large, two-lobed and wrinkly like a brain, and vary in color from light beige to dark brown.
English walnuts are mild in flavor with very little astringency. They are much harder to hull and extract from their shell — plus they stain something fierce. Indeed, black walnuts have been used for centuries as a stain and a dye.
Hank Shaw over at Hunter, Angler, Gardener, Cook has a great post on foraging, hulling, shelling and extracting black walnuts — sounds positively exhausting, but worth it.
California walnuts, which make up around 99 percent of all commercial walnuts grown in the US, require a significant amount of water. In drought-prone California, this is especially concerning. During the recent major drought, California walnut farmers were unable to rely on surface water and were pumping up huge amounts of ground water , a practice that many Californians feel is poorly regulated.
According to researchers at Perdue University, the trees are particularly sensitive to extreme cold and heat , both hallmarks of climate change-related weather events. The university has a breeding program in place to try to develop climate-change resistant varieties of the trees.
In general, even conventionally grown walnuts show little pesticide residue on the shelled nut. Walnuts are generally harvested from August through November. Here is a great photo essay of a walnut harvest in California. By far the most common type of walnut used in the kitchen is the English or Persian walnut Juglans regia. Other types of walnuts include the North American black walnut and the North American butternut also known as the white walnut.
In temperate North America, walnuts are important components of a healthy deciduous forest. Walnut fruit is green and fleshy and surrounds the walnut seed. You may even be wondering why I would mention this on a dairy-free website. The fact is that I know many of you are either dairy low rather than dairy-free. You may even be a dairy consumer who enjoys this website for a loved one, or simply because I post awesome recipes no modesty here and great articles like this one.
That said, if you do use dairy products, my vote is with organic for a few straight-forward reasons. Organic dairy must be produced without added hormones, which means it is naturally rBGH-Free. Therefore you are receiving some of the added nutritional value of grass-fed vs purely grain-fed cows. Finally, conventional dairy cows eat pesticide-rich, typically GM corn and soy. Pesticide residues from the feed have been found in dairy product samples. The feed for organic cows is neither genetically modified nor rich in pesticides.
Organic farmers are not permitted to unnecessarily use hormones or antibiotics on their cows and chickens to note: hormones are not permitted with pigs or chickens, whether conventional or organic. The healthy community has many concerns about the use of hormones and antibiotics in our food supply, and studies seem to be backing up that fear. Like for the dairy industry, organic cows must be at least partially grass-fed and will not be noshing on GM or pesticide-rich feed.
As for chickens, conventional farms are still raising them on GM feed and concerns of arsenic are still on the table. Eggs pose many of the same conventionally-raised risks and organic benefits as chickens, but it is also worth noting that the fat-soluble pesticides in chicken feed transfer to the egg yolks.
These stats are harder to find. These pesticides pose a more immediate threat to farm workers and a long term threat to our own well-being as they leach into the soil and our water supply. Bananas may seem benign with their thick, easy-to-remove skin, but approximately pounds of pesticides are required per acre of production.
Carrots, raspberries, rice, and citrus also demand high quantities of fertilizers. But in , lettuce ranked 14, just barely escaping the list and still packing in some pesticides.
Rather than relying too much on a quick list, consider organic when purchasing the foods you consume most frequently and in the greatest quantities. If the bulk of your food is free of non-organic pesticides, then your overall chemical intake should be greatly reduced. I always, always, always peruse the organic produce section before I head to the conventional.
Each year, an estimated 1 billion pounds of pesticides are sprayed in the United States. Any little dent we can make in demand has the potential to help our health and that of our environment. Alisa is the founder of GoDairyFree. Non-organic almonds can be pasteurized with propylene oxide. Non-organic almond crops are treated with glyphosate and pesticides. Eating organic almonds provides tons of nutrients.
Almonds can reduce heart disease and lower the risk of obesity. Here are a few of the ways we like to use organic almonds: Eat them plain for a snack. Make a healthy trail mix with dried unsweetened fruit, other nuts, and maybe some dark chocolate. Almonds add a nice crunch to both sweet and savory dishes. Using almond flour in your baking is a great, gluten-free way to add protein and reduce carbs in desserts and breads, like in this chewy almond bar recipe from Big Tree Organic Farms.
Organic almond butter is an excellent alternative to peanut butter. Spread it on a rice cake, make an almond and jam sammie, or mix it into your unsweetened yogurt How about non-dairy almond milk yogurt? Try this dairy-free almond milk alfredo recipe.
Of course, at BumbleBar, we use loads of organic almonds and organic almond butter each year to make our Mixed Nut Medley, Amazing Almond, and Chai Almond BumbleBars the last two being on sale this month!
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