It's heartnut season in the Okanagan. And if you don't know what a heartnut is, or even a heart nut, you're not alone. In fact, you're probably in the company of 99.9% of the population.

I didn't know what heartnuts were a year ago. They were on the Get Local Seasonal Availability list, so I asked Bonita Magee about them. She directed me to the Gellatly Nut Farm in West Kelowna, and last year while in the Okanagan, we stopped to check it out. It's a lovely place, a nut orchard right on Okanagan Lake. (It was once a working farm but now it's something of a park open to the public.) Very peaceful. There's a bit of a story posted on the bulletin boards there about Mr. Gellatly, and it would too easy (not to mention a bit unkind) to say he was a nut himself. But he was certainly eccentric. The sort of fellow who stayed awake until all hours writing letters to other nut farmers who were as passionate as he was.

The nuts are harvested and sold each autumn. And then what? Ah, that's the question.

I honestly don't know what people are doing with these nuts today, or what Mr. Gellatly's many customers did with them almost a hundred years ago, because these hearts are really hard to break. Which is a shame, because if you smack them just right they open up cleanly, just like a heart-shaped locket. Really! My dad managed to open a few, but he wasn't so taken with their flavour that he wanted to keep going. They're a bit like a walnut. (Actually they are a variety of Japanese walnut.) Anyway, he made me this wonderful little wooden block with a bowl-shaped depression in  it. He told me to set the nut in that little bowl and whack it hard with a hammer. Like so! And so! And so!

I have been whacking for several minutes now and didn't even make a dent in one heartnut. I didn't want to eat them, I only wanted to take a picture of it all beautifully exposed so you could see it (because silly me; I didn't take photos of the ones my dad opened). But I figured I was either going to a) burst into tears of frustration or b) hit my thumb, hard, with that hammer, and burst into tears of pain. So stopping seemed like a good idea. I hope you'll understand.