The Walnut Groves of Kashmir: What Grows Between the Mountains

A full-grown Kashmiri walnut tree can live for two hundred years. In the older villages of the valley, there are trees that were planted before the Mughal gardens were laid out in Srinagar, trees whose roots have been part of the soil longer than the oldest building standing in the neighbourhood. Beneath them, the ground is almost always bare — walnuts release a compound called juglone that inhibits the growth of competing plants. This is a tree that insists on space.

Kashmir produces some of the finest walnuts in the world, a fact that has been documented since at least the sixteenth century when Mughal emperor Akbar took particular interest in the valley's produce. The combination of soil, altitude, and climate — cold winters that allow the tree to go fully dormant, warm summers that fill the kernel with oils — creates a nut with characteristics that are measurably distinct from walnuts grown elsewhere.

Kashmiri walnuts are generally harvested between September and October, when the outer green husk begins to crack and split of its own accord, exposing the familiar ridged shell beneath. The best walnuts — Kagzi variety, named for the paper-thin shells that can be cracked between thumb and forefinger — yield light, cream-coloured kernels with minimal bitterness. Their oil content is high, their flavour rich and clean. Eaten fresh from the shell in autumn, they have a mellow sweetness that processed walnuts rarely approach.

In Kashmiri Pandit cooking, walnuts occupy a unique position. They appear in both savoury and sweet applications without any sense of contradiction. Akhrot ki chutney — a paste of walnuts, green chillies, garlic and mint. Walnuts are also gifted — to brides, to newborns, to guests arriving from afar — because in Kashmir, to give someone something good to eat is to give them something of yourself.

At Kanz & Muhul, our walnuts are sourced directly from farms in the Kashmir valley, graded for kernel quality and packaged without additives. We believe the best version of any ingredient is the one that lets you taste where it came from. These walnuts will tell you about cold mountain air, about deep soil, about trees that have been patient for a very long time.