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Walnuts - Something the Lord Showed Me

Discussion in '2004 Archive' started by NomadsWife, Sep 13, 2004.

  1. NomadsWife

    NomadsWife New Member

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    This is something the Lord showed me this weekend while I was spending the day with Him.

    WALNUTS

    When I was a child, we were quite poor and each winter we would gather and crack black walnuts to make some extra money for Christmas. People considered black walnuts a delicacy in our home town and would pay us money so they could get the finished product without having to do it themselves. They would pay $2-4 per pound for them.

    First we would gather the walnuts in sacks and carry and drag the sacks to the top of the hill above our house, then we'd roll the sacks down the hill toward the house. Once we got them to the house we'd empty each sack into a different pile and spread them out into a single layer to dry. Each day we would check them and roll them a bit to remove any loose skins. Once they were completely dried, we'd walk over them and kick the rest of the skins off the shells. Then we'd gather them up into a container and take them inside the house where we'd crack them. First we'd place a newspaper over our lap. Then we'd put a flat rock on top of the newspaper on our lap. Then we'd take a walnut and we'd hold it steady on the rock and hit it with a hammer. If we had a new unused rock, we had to break it in. That required getting the walnut to sit in the same spot every time... if we could keep it on the rock and not go flying across the room when we hit it with a hammer. If we had a rock that had been used for awhile, after awhile there would be a groove and the walnut would sit in that little hollow and it was easier to crack the walnuts because they were less likely to go flying across the room when we hit it with a hammer. Once we got it cracked, we'd crack just hard enough to get the meat out of the shell. The shells of a walnut are rough and if your hands aren't toughened when you start, they will be by the time you're done. Later after we were finished cracking we'd take the walnuts and spread them out on wax paper on the table and leave them to dry. If you store them fresh out of the shell they'll rot because of the moisture content. So we had to dry them first to get that full rick black walnut flavor that was so nice. Once they were dried we'd put them into a plastic bag for storage and they'd keep for a long time. Black walnuts are very good when you use them in brownies, fudge, cookies....whatever pastries you prefer.

    As I was spending time with the Lord this weekend, I happen to notice I was sitting under a walnut tree and there were some walnuts on the ground and I was reminded of my childhood when we used to crack walnuts to supplement our meager income. And the entire process we used to follow kind of reminded me that God sometimes uses the same methods with us. We have to ripen and mature and go through a cracking process then sometimes we need to age a little bit to get to that nice mature state which makes us more pleasing to the Lord.

    I think I'm in the middle of the cracking process or maybe somewhere in the drying process... not exactly sure which. Where are you?

    Nomads Wife
    9-13-04
     
  2. Gina B

    Gina B Active Member

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    Well, I know I'm a cracked nut. Your story does make me feel better about it though. :D
    You've gotta write more often woman! I really enjoyed that. [​IMG]
    Gina
     
  3. NomadsWife

    NomadsWife New Member

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    I just need to find the time to get alone with God and He shows me all sorts of things. I believe this around my 10th lesson or show. Most aren't like this. They are more in the nature of a Bible Study of sorts.

    After tonight, I think I'm more of a cracked nut... smashed to pieces actually, no care taken to gently get to the interior.
     
  4. glenn316

    glenn316 New Member

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    No instant walnuts!

    No instant Christians.
     
  5. NomadsWife

    NomadsWife New Member

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    I remembered something else about the walnuts... before they can be harvested they have to either fall off the tree or be knocked off the tree...lol That's a pretty good distance to fall sometimes depending on which branch they are on before they fall. Kind of like us. Depending on how lofty we are in our opinion of self, sometimes we will either fall or be knocked down in order for us to be harvested and processed into the black walnut that is good enough to use in baking.
     
  6. AVL1984

    AVL1984 <img src=../ubb/avl1984.jpg>

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    Just goes to show that God uses time to make us the Christians we need to be. Thanks for the post! [​IMG]

    AVL1984
     
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