Walnuts

Avoid rubbery or shrivelled shelled nuts, as this is an indication of age. Shelled nuts should be brittle and snap easily. Those nuts, which grow on the sunnier side of the tree will have a darker skin and a richer flavour.
 * Walnuts**
 * Storage and Selection**

Due to their high oil content, nuts can quickly turn rancid if not stored properly. For long-term storage, it is best to buy unshelled nuts and store them in the refrigerator for 2 to 3 months or freeze up to 1 year.

Shelled, bagged nuts are commercially available, but you might think twice about using them after hearing how they are processed. Commercially-packaged nuts are often treated with Ethylene gas, fumigated with Methyl Bromide, dipped in hot Lye, or a solution of Glycerine and Sodium Carbonate to loosen their skins, and then rinsed in Citric Acid. Quite a stringent chemical process.

Shelled walnuts should be kept refrigerated in an airtight container, and may be frozen up to a year. One pound of walnuts will yield about 2 cups of nutmeat.

Walnut oil is an excellent, albeit expensive, choice for salad dressings,
 * __but not for high heat uses.__**

Walnuts are the fruit of the //Juglans regia,// (also //J. nigra// for the black walnut). It is a Latin contraction of //Jovis glans// meaning regal nut of Jupiter or nut of :- "The Gods." Ancients believed the gods dined on walnuts, hence //regia// or regal.
 * __Walnut History__**

Origin of the term //walnut// has debatable origins. Some scholars say the term derives from the :- Teutonic German //wallnuss// or //welsche nuss//, and others debate it is from the:- Anglo-Saxon word //wealh// meaning foreign or alien and //hnutu// meaning nut.

It is difficult to trace the native home of the walnut tree, but ancient Romans believe it originated in Persia. Early cultivation spanned from south-eastern Europe to Asia Minor to the Himalayas. Greek usage of walnut oil dates back to the fourth century B.C., nearly a century before the Romans.


 * The oil of the nut has been used for centuries in the preparation of fine paints for artists.**