Nuts!!!

[Nicos]

OK...
Yesterday was very sunny and hot here in Normandy and we managed to collect 10 years worth of hazelnuts and walnuts.....

On a Zen type mode ..I recalled the song at infant school we used to sing.....

"Here we gathering nuts in May......la la la...la la la......on a cold and frosty morning."

Well..we alll must know this song ????

It's October...not May....was it an Aussie song or what????
Can't think of any nuts to gather in May..

Am I being thick or what?????

[scarey55]

Mmm, I always wondered about that too

[scared55]

Can't think of any nuts to gather in May..

It's not even party conference season!

KK

[Nicos]

Come on....someone must know the answer to this????

[Peter]

Perhaps it was a euphemism.

Google finds:
"In areas where wild hazels grew freely, large groups of villagers (particularly women) would go into the woods to gather them as food, or to sell to dyers. These expeditions were lively affairs, where a good deal of love-making went on; this sexual aspect, combined with the traditional use of ‘nuts’ to mean ‘testicles’, accounts for the jokes in folksongs and nursery rhymes about girls ‘gathering nuts in May’."

An alternative suggestion is that it is a lingual corruption of "knots" as in a knot or bunch of flowers.

Finally that it one of those things meant to be funny because it is wrong deliberately.

[Snadger]

Another plausible google find!

http://www.simonthescribe.co.uk/pignuts.html

[Flummery]

I understood 'nuts in May' meant you were barmy - because you couldn't. I also heard it as nuts and may - in other words, attemtping to collect nuts and may blossom on the same expedition.

Got a lovely walnut bun recipe if you're interested.

PS wear gloves to de-husk the walnuts. It makes your hands go BLACK for a fortnight. Ask me how I know!

[scared55]

OK. How do you know, Flummery?

Go 49ers!

KK

[Headfry]

When I tried to mildly bleach my black hands after walnut'ting they went GREEN! be warned!

[Nicos]

Brill info!!!

I've not yet de-husked the walnuts....so nice bit of advice there!!

Tomorrow we are being given a peasant cake by one of our neighbours- it contains the seasonal apples, walnuts and hazelnuts, and I'll try and get the recipie if it's as yummy as it sounds. Apparently the apples make it nice and moist!

And yes please- any recipies would be great!

[terrier]

"Here we gathering nuts in October, nuts in October, nuts in October.......

NNOOOOOOOOOO! It just won't do.

[Flummery]

OK. How do you know, Flummery?

Go 49ers!

KK

I like to pretent it was an experiment in dyeing. It was a horrid mistake. I think the wine making sterilising powder I used a week or so later when cleaning a bucket for the sloe wine helped it to fade but I looked fairly grim for a good fortnight.