Roger Saul on The Funky Farmer's Youtube

From husk to box: The Funky Farmer, Part 2

October 29, 2026

In Part 1, YouTube farmer Richard, The Funky Farmer, watched our trees being shaken as the walnuts came down like rain. In Part 2, he follows them back to the farmyard to see what happens next.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVhx4H8TJ2s]

From dairy shed to drying barn

The old dairy cubicle shed is now our walnut barn. This is where every nut is sorted, washed and dried before it reaches your box.

Sorting by size

Our trees grow very different nuts, from whoppers to tiddlers. Anything under about 28mm is set aside and cracked for kernels, which go into Pump Street’s Walnut Brownie bar and Olives Et Al’s walnut range.

Our most frustrating tree is number 19. Its nuts are tiny, yet it’s our most prolific tree. So this year, we picked from it green in June for our first ever Pickled Walnuts, and it still gave us a full crop at harvest.

Washing

The nuts go into a washer that works like a giant cement mixer. Two one-minute spins rub off the husks, leaves and creepy crawlies.

What comes out looks like cattle slurry, as Richard points out. Nothing is wasted: the husk goes back on the trees as fertiliser and mulch.

Drying

Freshly washed nuts are spread on racks in a single layer to air dry. Leave them piled up and they rot. One early year, a batch left in a dumpy bag went mouldy within days.

Then they go into the dryer at around 40°C for 30 to 40 hours. They go in at roughly 35 per cent moisture and come out at around 8 to 12 per cent.

As Richard says, it’s a labour-intensive process that most people never see.

The walnut that started it all

Roger also shows Richard the walnut that started it all. Found in a wall at Sharpham, it was left by a monk around 500 years ago and is still rock solid. Its round shape is typical of an English walnut. Many of our modern varieties are French, and more oval.

The whole walnut

Back inside, Roger lays out everything the walnut gives us:

Walnut dye, made from the husk and used on wool and fabric
Walnut ink, once one of the main inks of medieval times
Ground shell, for shot blasting and beauty products
Walnut Leaf Tea, created with Jonathon at Tregothnan
NEW Pickled Walnuts, our first ever production run
Walnut Tapenade, Dukkah, Balsamic and Olives and Walnuts, made with Olives Et Al
Walnut Brownie bar, made with Pump Street Chocolate

Back where we started

The tour ends in the warehouse, with the walnuts packed into their boxes and bags. Many customers who started with one 350g box now come back every year for 3kg or 10kg.

Richard left with a jar of Roger’s honey. ‘Christmas present sorted,’ he said.

Thank you to Richard for a brilliant visit. Find more on his YouTube channel, @TheFunkyFarmer.