Words On Wellness • They're Good For Us
By Karin Uphoff
As the nights get longer and the days colder, it’s officially time to get cozy and eat more warming, protein dense foods like nuts and seeds with their essential fats. One of our more amazing native foods and medicines is the Northern California Walnut (Juglans hindsii), a large tree, up to 60 feet tall, with a single erect trunk (unlike its more bushy Southern California sister). The foot-long leaves are made up of opposing graceful leaflets that turn gold in the fall and drop off for the winter months. These drought tolerant trees are tremendously fire resistant and will sprout new growth from the trunk even if they do get badly burned. Native walnut is commercially important as a rootstock for English walnut orchards all over the world and the wood, sometimes called ‘Claro walnut’ is coveted by furniture makers because of its good working properties and beautiful grain patterns.
Walnut was and continues to be, food and medicine for indigenous peoples who likely assisted its cultivation, since much of its original distribution overlaps with early human inhabitation. Hunting bows were made from the wood, baskets from the bark and game pieces made from the nuts which, though small with a thick shell, provided an excellent source of protein and fat. Walnuts are significantly higher in Omega 3 fatty acid than any other nut and have a good dose of magnesium as well.
The green husk around the nut (the hull), is still used to make a dark brown dye for fiber arts or to stain wood. This same unripe hull which is easily peeled off the nut (wear gloves or your hands will be stained for days) contains iodine and juglandin, and is strongly antifungal. Because of this, black walnut green hull is useful in treating skin diseases, particularly of a fungal nature, including eczema, candida, athlete’s foot, and skin parasites. It is also in herbal formulas for internal parasites, pin worms, or tape worms. A tincture of the hull or powdered hull can be applied topically and even a tea from the leaves makes a good skin wash. Because of its low iodine content, it is used to treat hypothyroidism along with dietary changes. Walnut flower remedy gives one emotional strength in adapting to change – who can’t use some of that nowadays?
