Fresh Nuts
People often assume a soft nut is a stale nut and a crunchy nut is a fresh nut. This is not always true!
A freshly harvested nut can be quite soft due to moisture still remaining in the nut. All nuts are dried by the farmers after harvest, but some moisture will remain for a short time in all freshly harvested nuts, in particular hazelnuts and pecans. As the nuts age they will naturally continue to dry and will become crunchier.
Our farmers send us their fresh harvested nuts in cardboard boxes. This allows the nuts to continue drying. If the farmers instead immediately sealed the nuts in an airtight container the remaining moisture could cause the nuts to mould.
When we receive our nuts, we leave them in their cardboard boxes in our warehouse refrigerators and transfer them into one and five pound bags as needed to ship out to our customers.
When you receive nuts from us they will be in plastic bags (we are actively looking for an alternative to plastic but currently we have not found a viable product that can easily be shipped and creates an effective moisture barrier in the fridge). If your nuts are so fresh that they are still soft, we recommend you allow them to breathe, by keeping them in a container that allows some air circulation. Make sure to keep them away from onions and other strong smelling foods, as they tend to take on the smell of things around them. Once your nuts no longer have any softness to them we recommended you store them in sealed glass containers in the fridge or freezer.
I can’t emphasize how important it is to keep your nuts and seeds cool. Our walnut farmer won’t sell to folks unless they guarantee that their product will always be cold stored. The same with our pecan folks. In fact every box of nuts that we get has this reminder on it. And yet we never see nuts and seeds refrigerated in grocery stores. It’s not required by law because it won’t kill you, but for optimal quality, you want those nuts to be kept in the fridge. We pay to have our nuts stored in cold storage units out in Surrey. It costs a lot but it’s important to us that the quality be excellent year round.