It all began back in 1975 when my parents acquired land in the Capay Valley - a small, beautiful agricultural region located in Northern California. After a few years of country living, they figured what better way to utilize their land, than to grow something on it. They also had two young, rambunctious children they wanted to put through college. One of them being me. Hence, a walnut farm-college fund was born.
After college graduation, I moved to NYC and launched my interior design firm, and began hosting those popular home renovation design shows. During holiday trips home, I would haul back bags of our freshly harvested organic walnuts to stock up for the year. I always had them as a handy snack on job sites and on set. My clients, friends, and local chefs always begged me for them. Immediately after tasting, I'd always hear how "incredible" our walnuts were and how they'd "never tasted walnuts like these before." I appreciated the love, though never quite understood the impact.
My "a-ha" moment came the first time I shared our organic walnuts with my husband, Eric. When we first started dating, he kindly bought me a bag of organic walnuts from a popular natural food chain as a thoughtful gesture. I ate one walnut and had to spit it out. It tasted old, dry, and bitter. Sound familiar? I had never purchased walnuts from a store because I didn't have to, as I always had access to fresh ones. The look on Eric's face when I spit out his "thoughtful" gift was quite comical.
This obviously was not such a nice gesture on my part. However, it was during this moment we realized, most of the general public does not have access to freshly harvested organic walnuts. That is unless you know a walnut farmer. Well, now you do.
Over the past 40+ years, I've watched my father, "Corky" tend to his trees and the land as if they were his children. There's a lot of love and care which goes into growing our organic walnuts. CORKY'S NUTS was created to honor my father and provide people, like you, access to fresh, amazing-tasting organic walnuts I've spent all my life enjoying.
- Nicole (the farmer's daughter and now farmer)
Here I am (Nicole), already offering fresh seasonal goods (almonds) before our walnut orchard was put in.
OUR COMMITMENT
Did you know when you purchase organic, or even conventional, walnuts from a store or large online retailer, that bag of walnuts could be up to two years old? After their fall harvest, most walnuts are stored in various conditions until an order is placed or put on store shelves. The expiration date is the only visible information on a package of walnuts about their age. There's no way of knowing how long those nuts have been sitting around or when they were actually harvested.
Do you want old nuts? We certainly don't.
Here in the US, 99% of walnuts are grown in California and harvested between September and October. Our certified organic (CCOF/USDA) walnuts ship directly to you in early December, right after harvest. Our small-batch products are crafted in our certified organic production facility and hand-packed with love.
CORKY'S NUTS mission is to help transform your relationship with walnuts by directly providing fresh, seasonal organic goodness from the farm. Sweet, creamy, buttery, and delightful golden morsels. Sounds pretty great, right?
As we always say, "You haven't tasted a walnut until you've tasted CORKY'S NUTS."