moghouse writes:

When I left my last house one of the neighbours was so glad to see me
go that he gave me a seedling walnut tree.It was a little chap about
six inches high. Now it has grown a bit (about 30 feet) and is covered
in walnuts. What I would like to know is how to get the nuts from
little gree plums on the tree to ripe walnuts that we can eat.

The squirrels bring me fresh walnuts from one of the neighbours
tree. I generally make a couple of slits in the green down as far as
the hard shell (if there isn't a hard shell yet then look up recipes
for pickled walnuts instead) inside, then leave them to dry out. Once
they're dry the fruit will peel off, leaving you with the familiar
nuts.

Wear thin gloves. As mentioned in all the best fairy tales where the
princess needs to disguise herself as a peasant girl, walnut juice is
a very persistent brown stain.

Anthony