The Pleasures of Unripe Green Walnuts and Almonds

What Do You Do With Unripe Green Walnuts?

You ferment them into nocino!

Nocino is a sticky dark brown liqueur from the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. Fun fact: This beverage originated in ancient, pre-Christian Brittania and is now associated with St. John the Baptist.

But it is basically a green walnut tincture that potentially confers benefits such as alleviating hypothyroidism (due to high levels of iodine), stimulating the liver and increasing brain activity.

So that’s one creative use of green walnuts.

Almonds Are An Amazing Snack Food

Almonds are one of those natural wonders that make amazing snack foods My entire family munches on almonds on road trips, hikes and even later at night when we are watching a movie.

It is a misnomer that almonds are nuts, though. Botanically, an almond is actually the pit of a stone fruit, closely related to plums, apricots, peaches, nectarines and cherries!

While most everybody’s seen or eaten an almond, relatively few have experienced the pleasure of eating a green almond.

What Do You Do With Green Almonds?

Green almonds are the immature fruit, harvested before the pit has had a chance to harden. They can be found for a short time from mid-April through mid-June at farmer’s markets and Persian markets (but rarely if ever at supermarkets). Green almonds are considered a delicacy in the Middle East.

We eat them raw. Just slice them in half and eat the soft, gelatinous pit inside. Or pop out the immature nut in the middle and lightly dip them in a bit of sea salt. They can also be chopped up and added to a salad to add extra flavor. They are best consumed within a couple days of being harvested and can get rather bitter if they sit for too long.