So strange

I love walnuts and they seem to be the food of the moment – ‘cure everything’ (according to the Daily Express!).
 
I much prefer them out of the shells, than ready-shelled, but they are so hard to get hold of . . . except at Christmas.
 
It is so strange – bags of walnuts appear on the shelves around November and then, at the end of December, they disappear. It seems to be one of those traditions – nuts in shells at Christmas. It certainly used to be, but I am not sure it is any longer. I used to put nuts out and a nutcracker, then I realised that I was the only one bothering with them, so I stopped.
   
When I was a child we always had a bowl of nuts in shells on the table at Christmas. In fact I remember sitting with my grandad, as he shelled nuts for me. He could shell walnuts and they came out whole. I thought it was magic at the time and I still think so – I can’t do it. They all come out in bits and I have to sort the nuts from the shells. I still prefer them though. I just wish I could get hold of them all year round.