The last walnut
In order to meet the requirements of a new customer, the SmaakWarenhuis in Breda with my 'Do it yourself' Jars, I had to find a replacement for the chocolate. Cocoa simply does not grow in the Low Countries.
The first order from the Smaakwarenhuis was 75 jars, but it had to be 100% from Dutch soil. My flour is of course ground by Jos Kors, the miller of flour mill 'de Zandhaas' in Santpoort. The ecological wheat he uses for this comes from Flevoland (check). The white and dark bastard sugar comes from Groningen sugar beets (check) and the cranberries come from Terschelling (check). Just a substitute for the chocolate.
Soon we came up with the idea of walnuts. First of all, walnuts are very tasty in cookies and they grow well in the Netherlands. After some research I found out that there is
Kwekerij Westhof in Zeeland, which grows walnuts. Walnut grower Peter van 't Westeinde from 's-Heer Abtskerke told me that they still had walnuts. Nice! Did you peel them too? No, not that.
I need 4 kg peeled. How many kilos unpeeled is that? Ah dude, 12 kilos are peeled in no time, the grower managed to tell me reassuringly…
Rachel and Roos had already completely filled the jars over the weekend. Only the top layer with walnuts needed to be added. I had bought a professional walnut cracker and I was ready to crack those nuts. Two evenings in front of the TV with a bowl of walnuts on my lap yielded exactly 450 gr of peeled walnuts. So just over 10%.
While I was baking gingerbread the day before the delivery, friend Jan Paul van Woensel called. He asked: Can I pick up three of those cookie mix jars from you? Because a colleague of mine would like to have them. Of course, just come over. At half past five Jan Paul was still dressed in his suit, after a day's work at KPMG in my kitchen. "While we're chatting, would you like to help crack these funny nuts in the meantime?" Yes, no problem said Jan Paul. I have until half past eight and he already took off his jacket. Awesome!
After we had cracked together for 3 hours, only a quarter of the 12 kilos had been done. With the remark of the grower still in my head “they peeled in no time”, we both concluded that it would be night work for me. If I could make it on my own. The jars had to be in Breda at half past 9 in the morning.
Jan Paul had rescheduled his appointment and thus presented himself as an angel just before Christmas. "I'll stay until we're done." We ended up driving home at 3am. I was so happy with Jan Paul's help. The job is done.
The pots arrived in Breda right on time and they looked great. The golden yellow walnuts shone in the spotlights of the Smaakwarenhuis. After two hours I received a text message from Sandra from the Smaakwarenhuis. “The first 20 jars have already been sold!”. In the end, all 75 jars were gone within a day! Could I bring another 75 jars? Naturally…
