There is more than one way to crack a nut

Why grow walnuts? Well, they are a health food, they taste good, they make wonderful oil, they have a long shelf life, the trees are easy to grow and look after. Correct on all counts except the last. Walnut trees need to be planted, fertilised, irrigated, pruned and protected against marauding birds. Walnuts need to be harvested, dried, cracked and packed or made into oil. Worth the effort and worth doing organically.

Why Organic?

Organic foods are produced according to certain high production standards. For foods like nuts it means they were grown without the use of conventional pesticides, artificial fertilizers, human waste, or sewage sludge, and that they were processed without ionizing radiation or food additives and using plants that were not genetically modified. Except for some weed control we adhered to these principles from the outset. However, from the consumer point of view it is not enough state a product is organic, it needs to be independently certified as such. Hence Wellwood has sought certification from Australian Certified Organic . Organic certification consists of an organic certifying group auditing a business’ methods to ensure that the business complies with national or international standards for organic farming and processing. At this stage Wellwood is certified organic in conversion (number 10716IC) and is entitled to use the Australian Certified Organic logo shown here.

Quality

It does not follow that just because a food is labelled organic that it tastes better. In the case of walnuts it is important that they are harvested at the right time, that they are not over-dried and that they are not rancid. Unfortunately many walnuts on the market suffer from one or more of these defects and many people say that they do not like walnuts because they have only tasted sub-standard nuts.