Pauls Ponderings September 4, 2008

An oft-mentioned saying notes that “You’re never too old to learn something new,” and even as I grow older, I find this to be more and more true. And, learning about something new often brings pleasant surprises.
Case in point. Tuesday morning, I found out that there is a type of nut that grows in Kentucky that I’d never seen before. It’s a heartnut, and all you have to do is look at it to know how it got its name. Not only is it a pretty nut, but it’s delicious.
I was introduced to the heartnut by Josephine Hubbard and her sister, Roberta Crouch, at Josephine’s home on Knifley Road. But the nut wasn’t the reason I was at the home. A couple of weeks or so ago, I took a picture of a small fig tree that Vitis and Alberta Bailey had set out at their home near Cane Valley that was bearing fruit in it’s first growing season. The Baileys said that they had asked around, and weren’t aware of any other fig trees growing in the county – and I stated this when I put the photo in the paper. I also told the Baileys that, if there were any other fig trees growing in the county, I’d probably hear about it. And, I did. Roberta called me up and told me that her sister Josephine had some fig trees in her yard. It took a few days before Josephine and I could get together, but I finally made it out there Tuesday. (Truthfully, I’m glad I didn’t go any earlier, as a few of the figs were starting to ripen, and I was able to eat a couple straight off the tree. They were delicious – much, much better than a Fig Newton cookie.)
After taking a picture of the fig tree and sampling the fruit, we began talking about the various other fruits that Josephine has growing around her place – grapes, apples, pears, pawpaws, cherries, strawberries just to name a few – and the conversation gravitated to her father, the late Ed Rice, who was widely known for his expertise in growing fruits, vegetables and, as it turns out, heartnut trees. Josephine lives beside her parents’old house, so her father planted many of the fruit trees she still is enjoying the harvest from. I personally remember Mr. Rice’s growing expertise, as several years ago I took pictures of some tomato plants he had grown in garden that were 10 to 11 feet tall.
Roberta then mentioned the heartnut tree, and when I said I never had seen any heartnuts, Josephine quickly went into the house and came back out with a handful. Like the figs, they were delicious. Then she explained that you can’t just plant a heartnut and grow a tree that produces nuts. The heartnut tree her father planted was grafted onto a walnut tree. After I got back to work, I went to the Internet, and discovered that the heartnut is native to Japan, and is considered a seed sport (whatever that means) of the Japanese walnut. I really don’t care about it’s origin, I just know the nuts are good to eat. And, I want to thank Josephine and Roberta for helping me learn something that I didn’t know this week.
(P.S. The pawpaw and the pear I was sent home with were also very tasty.)