Dia de la Nuez

    Yes, you translated that title correctly, Nut Day. Last week my school spent a day collecting and cooking with nuts. Dia de la nuez or cosecha de nueces (nut harvest). In Colegio El Encuentro, my school, there are tons of walnut trees. My peers will just casually crack them by stomping on the nut and then pick it up to eat it. At first, this was super different to me because in Colorado I have never seen a walnut tree, let alone at my high school, but now I find myself eating the walnuts during "recreo" (break/recess). Maybe walnut trees aren't typical in all private Chilean schools, maybe they are just a thing in my school since Encuentro is described as a "hippie", ecological, and environmentally friendly school. 

    "Nuez" translates directly to nut, so I asked a lot of people what kind of nuts were on these trees on our campus. I never got a direct answer, hence why I kept asking people. So after I spent many frustrating conversations asking what TYPE of nuez it is (because it can't just be a nut!), I started to think that there is only one type of nut in Chile (that's how confused I was). I finally learned that a "nuez" is a walnut. In Spanish the word for walnut is "nuez" which means nut. "Que?!?" So then my next question was, what is a peanut, a cashew, an almond, and all the other types of nuts called since an almond is a nuez (nut)? It turns out all the other types of nuts were not left out, and they do in fact have names in Spanish but all in all, a "nuez" is a walnut, a walnut is a nut, but an almond is not a "nuez". 

    Our nut harvesting day started with an all school assembly. At the end of the assembly, all the students formed a nut. Starting with the Pre-kinders sitting in a circle, then the next grade would form a circle around the previous grade's circle. Finally the seniors sat down and we were a nut. Sitting as a nut and listening to a spirtual speech about us being part of the land didn't last long because there was too much excitement and squirminess (not just from the younger kids) to go pick the nuts. Each grade has their own walnut tree and they have the same one every year until they graduate. My grade's tree apparently was lacking on nuts this year but we still gathered tons! To gather the nuts, some of the boys would climb up to a really high branch and shake it. People would yell "cuidado!" as the nuts came flying down. Then the kids on the ground would pick up all the nuts they could find until someone started shaking another branch and the process repeated. After my grade collected as many nuts as we could, we went back to our classroom to start the process of making panqueques. Panqueques are crepes, not typical American pancakes. One group cracked the nuts using big rocks, one group spread manjar (dulce de leche) on the panqueques, and the other group added the toppings. The toppings included our walnuts, ice cream, more manjar, and fruit. Needless to say, they were SO GOOD!! 

My grade's tree and the kids climbing up it! 

Crackin'!

Before all the toppings were piled on

The Nut Harvest is an annual event and is talked about almost as a holiday by all the kids. Other grades made cakes, cookies, and other sweets using walnuts. 

What a fun way to get involved with the culture and bond with classmates!

Chao!