Nuts! Walnuts, hazelnuts, or perhaps the slightly more exotic—but wonderfully Dutch—okernoot (that’s a walnut, my friend!). The Netherlands might be famous for tulips, but come late summer and autumn, a different kind of treasure appears in the branches of farm orchards. Forget the bagged, shelled versions from the supermarket—here, you get to be a squirrel for an afternoon.

Picking ’em: The Great Nut Heist

Hazelnuts are ready in August and September, walnuts in September and October. Grab a basket, a pair of gardening gloves (those green walnut husks can be stubborn and stain your fingers), and a sense of adventure. Most farms let you wander between rows of towering trees. Look for the nuts that have already tumbled to the ground—that means they’re ripe and ready. Ripe walnuts have a cracking, yellow-brown husk; ripe hazelnuts sit in a brown husk and come loose easily. Leave nuts with green husks or soft shells on the tree. Where the farm allows it, a gentle shake of a branch brings down the ripe ones. It’s a perfect low-effort outing: you’re chatting, squinting at the grass for that perfect round shape, and racing the kids to see who can find the biggest one.

Back Home: Shell, Toast, and Dominate

First, you need to get them out of their party clothes (the green husk). Wear gloves! Then, spread them out in a single layer in a dry, airy spot for a week or two to cure. Or, cheat: roast them in the shell at 180°C for 10 minutes. This dries them and makes cracking them open easier. Store nuts in their shell in a cool, dry, dark place, where they keep 6–12 months; shelled nuts go in an airtight container in the fridge (3–6 months) or freezer (up to a year). Now, what to do with your haul?

MAIN COURSE RECIPE 1: Creamy Walnut Pesto Pasta

Skip the pine nuts. Walnuts are the boss here.

  • Ingredients: 200g pasta (orecchiette or linguine), 100g shelled walnuts, 2 cloves garlic, 50g Parmesan (grated), a large handful of fresh basil, juice of ½ lemon, 100ml olive oil, salt & pepper.
  • Method: Toast the walnuts in a dry pan for 3 minutes until fragrant. In a food processor, blitz the toasted walnuts, garlic, basil, and Parmesan until crumbly. With the motor running, drizzle in the olive oil until it becomes a chunky paste. Squeeze the lemon in, season. Cook the pasta, reserve a cup of pasta water. Toss the pasta with the pesto, adding pasta water a splash at a time until creamy. Serve with extra Parmesan.

DESSERT RECIPE 2: Dutch Hazelnut Speculaas Biscuits

Because nuts love spiced cookies.

  • Ingredients: 200g flour, 100g ground hazelnuts, 125g butter (cold, cubed), 100g brown sugar, 1 egg, 2 tsp speculaas spice mix (cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger, cardamom), a pinch of salt, whole hazelnuts to decorate.
  • Method: Mix flour, ground hazelnuts, sugar, spices, and salt. Rub in the cold butter until it looks like breadcrumbs. Add the egg and form a dough. Roll to 5mm thick, cut into shapes (windmills or circles). Press a whole hazelnut into the center of each. Bake at 175°C for 12-15 minutes until golden. Your house will smell like a Dutch Christmas market.