Rod Croskery’s been obsessed with black walnuts ever since he couldn’t convince anyone that he had found them growing on Young’s Hill, Leeds County, Ontario, Canada, back in 1973. “Walnuts don’t grow that far north. They must be butternuts,” said all of the experts consulted, including the veneer company representatives.
Considerable research proved Rod to be correct this once, so he decided that these walnuts would be his retirement project. Then the Leeds Stewardship Council suggested that he plant some trees as a demonstration plot for the International Plowing Match 2007 Conservation Display, and it seemed the perfect time to begin a walnut orchard on the fields adjoining the Croskery Woodlot.
By fall of 2007 the excitement of the IPM had died down and the Walnut Diary entries began to diverge. Howie Crichton came across the blog and offered Rod a column in his weekly newspaper, the Review-Mirror. It ran for four years. Now Rod’s putting a book together, loosely based upon his columns.
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“This is a subject of but small importance and I know not whether it will interest any readers, but it has interested me.”
Charles Darwin on Earthworms, 1882
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You may contact Rod by email at: rodcros at gmail.com
