Nuts

When PH and I go out to the farm stands in the area we call it foraging.  We like this place for potatoes and corn and that place for melons and peaches and tomatoes and one over there for a quick pick up.  The countryside here is beautiful and the day is quiet and the prices are good.  

But once in awhile something comes up and it's true foraging.  A friend called and said the hickory nut tree at the golf course he mows is full, full, full and did we want to come get some?  Um. Yes!

This was our haul and now we wait for the husks to darken and then take those off.  Put the nuts in water to see what floats and what sinks. The floaters get tossed, those nuts are empty.  Then we crack.

Two days later we had a storm.  It was a "light" tornado, an F1 out of a scale of 1-5.  It didn't affect us personally, though you would think living in the forest on top of a hill we'd have a bullseye on our roof but we are/were very lucky compared to some in the area.  Tornadoes are fickle, they hop and skip and jump and sometimes just whiz by. Sometimes you are in the path and sometimes you aren't.

And then we got another call from our friend.  The tree was down. It was the biggest tree in the middle of the golf course and it was mostly down and consequently, so were the nuts.  Did we want more?

We picked two more containers and the picking was much closer to the ground.  So sad to see that beautiful tree broken.  I'm thinking by looking at it that it was a lightning strike.

And on another part of the course there were pears.

This was true foraging. We picked up a bushel of pears.

There is a reason they tell you not to stand under a tree when there is a lightning storm, especially on a golf course.