I'm rather fond of old vintage tins and their attractive pictures. Of course we traditionally used to keep cakes and biscuits in many of them but in this modern day and age there's been a significant move towards using plastic containers instead.
One way the old tins can still be used is to store walnuts in their shells once they have been cured or dried in the sun for a few weeks.
I never shell walnuts until right before I use them. Stored in the shell they will stay sweet for a couple of years at least. Once they're shelled I find they go rancid very quickly.
I like to store walnuts very securely for one reason in particular - rats. They love them and will come from miles around to try and raid them. I am told by the old timers that years ago they used to bait rats with walnuts dipped in vanilla and that the rats found them irresistible. Even a rat knows what is good for it!
Over the years we've gathered quite a sizeable collection of old cake tins - old family ones which have been here for decades and some that have been bought in recent times - so these are perfect to store the walnuts in. It's good to admire the pretty tins and interesting old pictures and make use of more of them once again.
Walnuts are great to eat as a snack and to me a chocolate cake isn't complete unless it has walnuts on the top although in recent years I've developed a tendency to put them on banana cakes too since banana and walnut is always such a good combination. Walnut and banana bread is always delicious.
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