We have a walnut tree in the front of the house. I greatly enjoy walnuts, and we harvest them, dry them out, crack them, and benefit from their goodness all year.
Lots of people seem to enjoy walnuts as well, and this time of year some of those folks can be seen out rustling walnuts in local yards and orchards.
Last year we had some fairly friendly thieves and some extremely belligerent ones. The defense for all sorts is “Oh, I didn’t know they were yours.” As if that somehow makes it OK. My response? “Well, you did know this isn’t YOUR tree, right?” It always brings a blank look.
After the creepy weird people last year, we called the sheriff’s department. I was surprised how fast someone arrived. Good to know we’re in a low crime area, right? After we talked, I learned that they take agricultural thefts very seriously. If someone has a truck in my yard, he is likely hitting up others as well.
Some of these thieves are quite diligent and quite damaging to those whose living depends on a good harvest. So tonight when we heard voices, AGAIN, and I just picked up the phone. I figure if they are out front taking my walnuts, they’ll be down at the neighbor’s farm soon enough. I’ll let a deputy deal with it, I’m tired. Tired of the fight as much as anything, the blank stare, the total bewilderment that I would not want strangers on my property stealing food from my family.
I guess I’m just old-fashioned that way.
It just blows my mind how rude people can be. We live on a road that has many walnut trees on it. Last year I just went up and asked permission to collect walnuts. Every single neighbor we asked told us we could and one of our elderly neighbors asked for help with their walnuts. They both have arthritis and its hard for them to bend to pick up the nuts and the cracking and shelling is hard on their hands. My little ones and I spent the morning working with them and then I took all the nuts back to our house and over the next week we crack and shelled all of them and I packaged them up in gallon size ziplock bags and then took them back to the couple.
Many people use our road for a nightly walking route and I’m always a bit shocked at the people who just bring grocery sacks and pick fruit as they go. I’ve always asked permission and then brought back something in exchange for my neighbors kindness.
Jennifer, we’re wishing YOU lived next door