74 WALNUT HARVEST.
sants, with their wives and elder children,
assembled at the chateau of an evening,
after their work was done. The party
generally consisted of about thirty persons,
who were placed around a long table in the
kitchen ; one man sat at each end of the
table, with a small mallet to crack the nuts
by hitting them on the point: as fast as
they are cracked they are distributed to the
other persons around the table, who take
the kernels out of the shell, and remove
the inner part; but they are not peeled.
The peasants of Savoy are naturally lively
and loquacious ; and they enliven their
labour with facetious stories, jokes, and
noisy mirth. About ten o’clock the table
is cleared to make room for the goute, or
supper, consisting of dried fruit, vegetables,
and wine ; and the remainder of the evening
is spent in singing and dancing, which is
sometimes continued till midnight. In a
favourable season the number of walnuts
from Mr. B.’s estate is so great, that the
party assemble in this manner every evening
for a fortnight, before all the walnuts
are cracked ; and the poor people look forward
to these meetings, from year to year,
as a kind of festival. They do not receive
WALNUT HARVEST. 75
any pay; but the goute and the amusements
of the evening are their only reward.
The kernels are laid on cloths to dry,
and in about a fortnight are carried to the
crushing-mill, where they are ground into
a paste ; this is put into cloths, and undergoes
the operation of pressing, to extract
the oil. The best oil, which is used
for salads and cooking, is pressed cold; but
an inferior oil, for lamps, is extracted by
heating the paste. Thirty people, in one
evening, will crack as many walnuts as will
produce sixty pounds of paste; this yields
about fifteen wine-quarts of oil. The wal-
nut-shells are not lost among so frugal a
people as the Savoyards, but are burned
for the ashes, which are used in washing.
Two pounds of these ashes are equal in
strength to three of wood-ashes ; but the
alkali is so caustic that it frequently injures
the linen. The paste, after it is pressed,
is dried in cakes, called pain amer ; this is
eaten by children and poor people, and it
is sold in the shops in Savoy and Geneva.
The best walnut oil, pressed cold, has
but very little of the kernelly taste ; but it
may be easily distinguished from the best
olive oil, which it resembles in colour. I f
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