From a bishop's blessing and Britain's first organic pickling walnuts to a jar of nocino, a summer without rain, and the question we are taking to Bristol: can we feed ourselves?
Every autumn the walnuts drop and the year begins again.
Since we last gathered the main crop there has been our biggest harvest ever, a blessing, a green walnut revival, three new collaborations, a great deal of press and one very hot day in June that put a bishop, a Telegraph food writer and a great many gloves in the same orchard.
Here is where we have got to.
Autumn 2025: our biggest crop ever
Last October we brought in the main crop of walnuts in shell, and it was the largest we have ever had: around two and a half tons from 300 trees.
Twenty-one years after the orchard went in, that felt like the moment it finally arrived.
Though even then there was a warning in it. It had been the driest summer on record, and while the crop was strong, the nuts themselves came up small. Hold that thought.
BBC News came out to see it, and Roger used the moment to make a broader point.
We're pretty self-sufficient in beef and sheep and dairy, not too bad on cereal, but on veg, fruit and nuts we are hopeless.
Around 99 per cent of the nuts eaten in this country are imported.
I've been pushing for two or three years. I've watched this subject come up, UK food security, nobody's paying attention.
His ask was specific, and it was not a handout: interest-free loans, planning help and some encouragement, because farmers who want to invest have no capital to do it with.
He made much the same case to Greatest Hits Radio Somerset a fortnight later.
We import half our vegetables, 80% of our fruit, and nearly all our nuts. We've had twelve food and agriculture ministers in ten years.
The Somerset County Gazette covered it too.
Days later Roger was at FŌDA 2025 at the Arnolfini in Bristol, co-hosting alongside food writer Xanthe Clay and chairing panels on regenerative farming and the link between soil health and nutrition. FŌDA is the festival of food ideas founded by chef Josh Eggleton MBE and Shona Graham of Team Canteen. It gathers the people actually growing, cooking and thinking about British food, and the conversations there tend to set the tone for our year.
That one certainly did.
2026: the rise of British-grown walnuts
The Telegraph put us in its round-up of the surprising foods this country now produces, alongside Lincolnshire olives and Isle of Wight citrus. Evidence, it argued, of how changing climates, regenerative farming and long-term thinking are reshaping what can be grown here.
Long-term thinking is the operative phrase. Walnut trees take around 20 years to produce a commercially meaningful crop.
Then the paper went and did something rather lovely. In the ultimate ice cream flavour for every English county, Somerset's flavour is walnut.
At Sharpham Park, near Glastonbury, former Mulberry boss Roger Saul has put Somerset walnuts on the map, establishing one of the country's best-known commercial walnut orchards.
The nod goes to Palette and Pasture at Pyle Farm outside Frome, where eight cows' worth of milk becomes Walnut Cookie and Coffee Walnut. A county flavour is a small thing, but it is the sort of small thing that only happens once an ingredient is properly back.
24 June 2026: Pickle Me Walnuts
On one of the hottest days of the year, guests gathered beneath the trees at Sharpham Park for our first Pickle Me Walnuts Day. It was a joyful celebration of British organic walnuts, the green walnut harvest and the remarkable possibilities of the walnut tree.
Dreamt up by Sharpham Park founder Roger Saul, the event brought together growers, chefs, makers, writers and food experts for a day rooted in seasonality, craftsmanship and the future of British food.
A blessing for the organic walnut orchard
The date held special significance. As well as traditionally being associated with the green walnut harvest, 24 June is St John the Baptist's Day.
Bishop Michael, the Bishop of Bath and Wells, joined us to bless the walnut trees. The ceremony connected the gathering with Britain's centuries-old tradition of blessing its orchards, crops and harvests.
For the occasion he wore a hand-embroidered stole created by Karen Spurgin. It was made entirely from walnut-dyed fabric offcuts and leftover yarn from the Colours for Change exhibition at the Bishop's Palace in Wells. The fabric had been naturally dyed by Emma D'Arcy using waste walnut husks from Sharpham Park.
A stole made from what most farms would throw away. It set the tone for everything that followed.
Reviving the British pickled walnut
The pickled walnut is one of the great forgotten British foods.
It appears in our recipe books from at least the early 18th century, it was a fixture of the Christmas table for generations, and it has almost entirely vanished from our kitchens. Ask most people under 50 and they will not have tasted one.
That is what the day was for. Not a talk about pickled walnuts, but everyone in the orchard actually making them.
These were Britain's first crop of organic pickling walnuts.
For just a few weeks around midsummer, walnuts can be harvested while they are still green and yielding, before their shells begin to harden. At that stage, and only at that stage, they can be pickled, or turned into nocino, the traditional Italian walnut liqueur. It is a fleeting moment in the farming calendar. Once the shell forms, the opportunity is gone for another year.
Guests headed into the organic walnut orchard to shake, bash and gather the green walnuts. The harvest was collected using an ingenious rolling tool, described by one guest as reminiscent of an old-fashioned carpet sweeper.
The walnuts were then washed and carefully pricked before being placed in brine. Among those getting involved around the pickling table were The Telegraph food writer Xanthe Clay and the Bishop of Bath and Wells.
Avoided stained fingers, avoided stained hands and buckets of rapidly darkening walnuts were all part of the experience. Apart from Cat Lewis, who had turned to ink making rather early.
And then you wait. The walnuts picked that day went into brine, and they have been quietly darkening ever since. They are now being made into Sharpham Park pickled walnuts, in partnership with Olives Et Al, and there will not be many of them. It is a small batch from a single midsummer afternoon.
They will be announced to Nut Mail subscribers first.
From soil to gut
The day was about much more than pickling. A series of talks and conversations explored our relationship with plants, healthy soil, nutrition, traditional knowledge and the resilience of Britain's food system.
That last one turned out to be the thread running through everything, and it is where this piece ends up.
Nutritionist Dr Lucy Williamson discussed the nutritional value of walnuts, which provide fibre, magnesium, plant-based omega-3 fats and antioxidants. She also introduced her new book, Soil to Gut, sharing its central message that healthy soils support healthy food and healthy people.
Ethnobotanist and writer Anna Lewington explored the long relationship between people and plants, revealing the many traditional uses of the walnut tree. Her talk included an introduction to walnut leaf tea and Sharpham Park's new limited-edition collaboration with Tregothnan, created using fragrant leaves harvested from the orchard.
Natural-dye specialist Emma D'Arcy shared the rich colours that can be created from walnut hulls, leaves and bark. Her display included walnut-dyed British wool and peace silk, jacquard-woven fabric and a textile from Ellie Shipman's Soft Monument 2.
Fellow natural dyer Cat Lewis presented ink made from Sharpham Park walnuts and spoke about her work helping to revive linen production in Wales. Together, these demonstrations revealed a spectrum of earthy browns and antique golds. They also showed that the value of the walnut tree extends far beyond its edible crop.
Nature photographer Ben Pulletz of Feathers and Hills joined us too, helping to connect the day's conversations with the wildlife and landscape supported by the farm.
A feast of British organic walnuts
Food was at the heart of the celebration.
Josh Eggleton MBE, Shona Graham and the FŌDA team created a glorious seasonal spread, including a refreshing walnut interpretation of ajo blanco. Guests also enjoyed Sharpham Park pickled walnuts served alongside Sharpham Park pear juice and Tricky Cider.
Shona Graham of Emmeline and the FŌDA team at work
Thank you to Wyke Farms, who provided delicious local cheese which paired perfectly with the pickled walnuts.
Val Stones produced two show-stopping coffee and walnut cakes.
Pump Street Chocolate brought its Walnut Brownie 60% bar and deeply indulgent bakery brownies.
The new chocolate bar is the second creation in Pump Street's Double Origin Series and an addition to its Bakery Series. Haiti 60% dark milk chocolate is combined with roasted and caramelised British organic walnuts from Sharpham Park, followed by rich brownie pieces from the Pump Street Bakery in Suffolk.
A year in the making, the bar celebrates two distinctive origins, Haiti and Somerset. The packaging was designed by Allies Design Studio and features botanical artwork by Suffolk artist Annabel Pearl, inspired by Georgian illustrations of walnut branches, leaves and fruit.
Olives Et Al also showcased its new walnut creations, including walnut tapenade, dukkah, walnut salad dressing and green walnut-infused apple balsamic.
Each dish and product offered a different answer to the same question: how can we celebrate this exceptional British-grown ingredient and use it to its fullest potential?
Harvesting walnut leaves for tea
It was not only the walnuts being harvested.
Jonathan from Tregothnan joined us as fragrant walnut leaves were gathered at their late-June peak, and the very first sample was brewed and tasted on the day. Subtle, woody and comforting, even in that heat.
The leaves are being transformed into a special limited-edition walnut leaf tea, the third of Sharpham Park's exciting new walnut creations. Introduced by Anna Lewington as part of her ethnobotany talk, the tea demonstrated another of the many ways in which the walnut tree can provide throughout the seasons.
The new walnut leaf tea will be available exclusively to Nut Mail subscribers.
Experimenting with nocino
The following day, with the kitchen reaching 35°C, Roger began experimenting with this year's nocino.
The green walnuts picked during the event were quartered, then combined in different batches with rum, vodka, sugar, citrus and spices before being sealed away to steep. Over the coming months the mixture will slowly become dark, treacly and richly spiced, ready to pour as the first cold evenings arrive.
The rum one is showing best so far, though the vodka is opening up.
As Roger put it in this Instagram post:
Hubble, bubble, toil and trouble,
Fire burn and walnut bubble.
Picked at midsummer, dark and green,
The finest nocino you've ever seen.
Patience is an essential ingredient, both when making nocino and when growing an organic walnut orchard.
Could this be next year's new product? We are looking into it. For now it stays firmly in the experimental cupboard, and is not for sale.
The summer of coverage
Pickle Me Walnuts found its way into rather a lot of places.
- Wells Nub News, on the bishop backing the mission to save British nuts
- Shepton Mallet Nub News, on reviving a forgotten British tradition
- Roger was on BBC Radio Bristol on 21 June
The Western Daily Press previewed the day on 13 June.
Somerset Life ran a feature in August on the farm's zero-waste, regenerative approach.
Roger also spoke at London Climate Action Week on UK food security.
The Pump Street bar drew its own following, featured by The Observer Food and chocolate expert Jennifer Earle, and shared by food writers and creators including Sophie Wyburd, Emma Winder and Milly Kenny-Ryder.
Then the water ran out
The most important thing that happened this year was not an event. It was the weather.
In August, Roger wrote in The Independent that Britain is now at red alert for food security, and the country is running out of water. It followed his January 2025 piece warning that Britain was sleepwalking into a food supply crisis.
The numbers behind it are not comfortable.
- Three-quarters of England was in drought, 45 million people affected and 27 million under hosepipe bans. July was the driest month on record, at 10 per cent of its long-term average rainfall
- The 2026 cereal harvest is on course to be the worst ever recorded, 2.5 million tonnes below forecast and up to £390m in lost revenue
- The English pea harvest is down by a third. Broccoli yields have been cut by more than half
- 78 per cent of Britain's fresh produce by volume is now imported. Since 2019 we have imported around 6 per cent less by volume while paying 29 per cent more for it
- Produce volumes from Europe are down 24 per cent, while volumes from Africa are up 55 per cent. Around 77 per cent of our top ten sourcing exposure now sits in countries rated high or very high for water risk
As Roger put it, we are not sleepwalking into a food supply crisis any more. We have walked off the edge of the cliff.
He told the BBC last October that nobody was paying attention. This August, the chief executives of Tesco, Waitrose, Sainsbury's, Aldi and the Co-op wrote jointly to the prime minister calling for legally binding targets on British-grown food.
Somebody is paying attention now.
Our own orchard has felt it. Our walnuts are grown without irrigation, which means every harvest is shaped entirely by the weather. This year a late frost caught the trees that blossom latest, and then the dry spell that followed stopped the second blossom setting. Some trees have tried to fruit twice, which we have never seen before.
It will be a lighter crop than we would like. Last autumn we brought in two and a half tons. This year will not come close.
We would rather tell you that than pretend otherwise. An orchard grown without irrigation, without glyphosate and without synthetic pesticides is an orchard at the mercy of the year it is given. That is the honest trade, and it is the same trade every grower in this country is making right now.
And here is the part that stings. There is no government support for irrigation to protect a harvest like ours. There are, however, grants for planting trees.
We will fund you to put a tree in the ground. We will not fund you to keep it alive and productive in a changing climate.
More than 20 years of growing British organic walnuts
Roger planted the walnut orchard at Sharpham Park inspired by the discovery of a 'monk's lunch' hidden within a 16th-century wall during the restoration of the estate. Among the chicken bones and scallop shells was a walnut, preserved in the masonry for centuries by a monk from nearby Glastonbury Abbey.
It was proof that walnuts had grown on this land before, and a reminder that every Somerset farm once had a walnut tree.
In 2004 he planted 300 trees, creating the country's first commercial organic walnut orchard, which remains the largest of its kind today.
Walnut trees demand long-term thinking. It can take around 20 years for them to produce a commercially meaningful crop, and Sharpham Park's first substantial harvests were the result of more than two decades of care.
Today the orchard forms part of an organic mixed-farming system centred on soil health, biodiversity and sustainability. Seven varieties, and Britain's main producer of certified organic walnuts.
The orchard did not appear overnight. It was planted for a future that has now arrived.
Can we feed the UK?
That question ran through every conversation this year, and it is the one we are taking to Bristol.
On 26 and 27 September, Roger co-chairs FŌDA 2026 at the Arnolfini alongside food writer Xanthe Clay and chef Josh Eggleton, and leads the LAND symposium:
Can We Feed the UK? A frank conversation on British food security, from soil to supermarket shelf.
Around the table: Guy Singh-Watson, founder of Riverford, Renee Elliott, founder of Planet Organic, and Natalie Gaibani, head of farming at Strutt & Parker, alongside a greenhouse pioneer, a water campaigner, a nutritionist and a finance specialist who can explain why investment is not flowing.
Guy Singh-Watson opens with the conversation nobody in the food industry wants to have: glyphosate, what we are putting into our soil, and what that means for the food on our plates.
They will not agree with each other. That is rather the point.
FŌDA's programme is built around four elements, LAND, SEA, FOREST and AIR, each asking what has to change if we want a food culture that is more resilient, more sustainable and better connected. Alongside the symposium there are exhibitions, practical workshops and a two-day producers' market in the heart of Bristol. The Producer Village along the quayside is free to visit.
This is the conversation that matters most to us. Not because British walnuts will feed the nation on their own, but because an orchard planted in 2004 and cropping today is a small, stubborn piece of evidence that growing more of our own food here is possible, if someone is willing to wait 20 years for it.
If we want a genuinely resilient food system, we have to think past individual ingredients and look at the health of our soils, the diversity of what we grow, and how we use our land for the generations after this one.
We have one of the best climates in the world to grow food. We have simply stopped doing enough of it.
Book your FŌDA tickets · Read the Rise & Shine preview
Discover our new walnut creations
Pre-order is now live, with delivery in late autumn.
Pump Street Chocolate's Walnut Brownie 60% bar is available online and in store now. Our limited-edition pickled walnuts with Olives Et Al and walnut leaf tea with Tregothnan are offered exclusively to Nut Mail subscribers. Both are small batches, and the pickled walnuts come from the single midsummer afternoon described above.
Sign up for Nut Mail in the website footer and you will hear about the harvest first.
This is only the beginning for British organic walnuts.
