Walnut

Walnuts are trees that are in the family Juglandaceae. They grow to be anywhere from 30 to 130 feet tall, have leaves that grow from 7 to 35 inches long, and there are usually between 5 and 25 leaflets in a single leaf.

This is a character trait that the Walnut shares with the wingnut, but is one that it does not share with the Hickory tree, which is in the same family.

What is probably best known about the Walnut is its fruit. Walnuts are enjoyed by many people as a food, and they are categorized by the hard shell that they are grown in.

Some people buy Walnuts in the shells like this, especially around the holiday season, which is when glazed walnut recipes are most popular. However, a lot of people just buy the already shelled walnuts by the bag.

These walnuts usually need to be kept refrigerated, or they can go bad within a few weeks. English Walnuts are the most popular kind of Walnut, though the Black walnut is popular in some areas.

It is usually not picked commercially, but private harvesters collect, use, and sell these nuts at certain times of the year.

Some types of walnuts are used to make walnut oil, which is a very expensive type of oil to produce. For this reason, walnut oil is often used sparingly, mostly in salad dressings and things like that.

Walnut tree wood is also used for many different things, including the production of gun stocks on shotguns and rifles. It is actually considered a  premium wood for such use, due to the high quality of the grain.

Actual walnut shells also have a lot of uses, mostly due to their very tough physical strength. They are naturally very strong, and as such, they are good for cleaning and for polishing.