Walnuts

Gathered from trees belonging to households across Rohru, Kotkhai and Jubbal — usually a few trees per family, harvested in autumn.

Dried in the sun, then cracked by hand through the winter. It's slow, sit-by-the-fire work.

• Old unmanaged trees along the Pabbar valley
• Hand-cracked and sorted, not machine-shelled
• Cracked to order so the oils stay fresh

Eat as they are, ideally within a few weeks of opening.

Toast lightly to bring out sweetness before adding to a salad.

With honey, which is the standard hill breakfast around here.

Walnut trees are a fixture of every old hill household — a tree planted by a grandparent still feeding the family two generations on.

Walnuts are widely recognised as a source of omega-3 fatty acids, protein and fibre, and are one of the few nuts eaten in quantity in these valleys.

These are general facts about this food, not tested claims about this specific batch. We'd rather tell you what we know than invent numbers.