Why walnuts keep falling on our heads this fall

Squirrels in the city have their work cut out for them this fall as an abundance of walnuts has been raining down on lawns and the heads of unsuspecting homeowners across London since late September.  

Branches on black walnut trees, a species native to southwestern Ontario, have been hanging lower than usual all autumn long under the weight of an abundance of bright green pool ball-sized nuts. 

"We have seen a bumper crop," Jill-Anne Spence, the manager of urban forestry with the City of London told CBC News. 

"It's pretty standard in nature that our trees act the way they're doing right now," she said. "They can have cyclical years where they have bumper crops and other years you'll notice there's not so many of them around."

Jill-Anne Spence offers tips on how to live with black walnut trees

7 years ago

Duration 1:58

Jill-Anne Spence, the urban forestry manager with the City of London, gives homeowners tips on how to manage London's seemingly ubiquitous black walnut trees.

Spence said despite the increase in nuts, there have been no complaints to the city's forestry operations department this year, but recommended that people prune their trees in order to reduce the chances of being hit on the head by nuts. 

• Black walnuts: 'Killer trees' or vital part of the city?

"Walnuts need good conditions to create a bumper crop," she said, noting a rainier than usual spring and a cooler than normal summer likely helped sprout so many nuts. 

'People don't really think of them as food'

While black walnuts are edible, it seems few people seem to eat them and, with such bounty this year, it might seem wasted on the squirrels. 

"Gosh, if someone were to go out and collect them for us we sure could put them to use," said Mike Bloxam, the community harvest coordinator for the London Food Bank. 

Bloxam, who has harvested apples, pears and strawberries on behalf of the food bank from private properties across the city, said no one has ever offered up a black walnut tree to the charity. 

"Not walnuts," he said. "A lot of people don't really think of it as food when it's out in the wild." 

"If someone wanted to bring them to us I'm sure we could work something out," he said.

Bloxam is even open to the idea of learning how to harvest them himself, something he's never done before. 

"It would be a little bit of an education," he said. "It's certainly something I'm willing to explore."