If you are a forager in this bit of the world, this month (lúnasa) is really important. As blackberries are finishing, nuts are becoming ripe. Here i have three different type of hickory nuts. They’re probably more like “varieties” than species, as the trees can freely hybridize with each other and not become sterile. This first one is pignut hickory, which i think of as being “plain old” hickory. There are a lot of hickory trees in the woods with this kind of nut. It has good meat but is small. . . The second one is kingnut. It grows on shellbark/shagbark hickory trees, which have bark that shreds and peels off the trunk in long strips. The hull around the nut doesn’t have “wings”, the long seam-like projections some other hickories have. . . . And then the last one is a pecan [pə ka:n], which has wings and is more elongated and much larger than the pignut. It would be unusual to find a pecan in the wild in this part of the state (or in the mountains), but it is wild along the ohio river, and here it is often planted and often outlives those who plant it, surviving in a wildlike state. The name pecan is an Algonquin word, and sounds like it could have started as an imitation of the sound of cracking a nut with a rock. . . #wildfood #wildedibles #pecan #hickory #nuts #foraging #wildhuman #kentucky #foodways