Going Nuts For Walnuts

In this extract from his book, The Walnut Tree: Tales of Growing and Uses, Charles Hulbert-Powell explains how he planted walnuts on his farm

- Charles Hulbert-Powell

For most people it is probably true that a walnut is the nut which is hard to crack at Christmas, a treat on top of a cake, a walnut whip, or an ingredient in ice cream. For many years I had no idea where they came from, their history, or what you can do with them. I had seen walnut trees in gardens, but hadn’t seen them in groves. I had read very little about them and had certainly been told nothing about nut trees at the Royal Agricultural College where I had done a farming course.

Then one day a friend told me that he was going to France to collect a quantity of grafted walnut trees and would I like to join in a sort of co-operative to produce nuts? The idea appealed because we had few realistic projects with any prospect of economic success on our 70 acres of poor, clay, grade three East Sussex agricultural land.

I had listened to dire warnings in the early years of the 21st century about climate change from the world’s climate experts. The opinion these scientists put forward was that this change threatened to turn the South of England into a dryer climate similar to that common in the South of France during the last few centuries. Yet in England I have heard the comment that our walnut trees never grow very large. The reason for this could be because of soil conditions, varieties that grow here and the weather. There are indeed areas of the country where walnuts are not often found. One notable garden and tree expert in Cornwall said that there are few examples in the county because the climate is too wet. It is true that a wet climate isn’t ideal for this tree.