Alchemy

Today, I took a bike ride and realized that the Noyers were beginning to get leaves. Noyers are walnuts and they are the principle crop of this area. The hills are covered with walnut trees in neat rows. Walnuts are the last trees to get leaves and the first to lose them. There are a few legends about noyers, one of which is a warning to never fall asleep under one. It's true that the tree produces a substance called jugend which is a natural herbicide, which is why one never sees weeds around the base of a walnut tree.
But jugend is powerfully aromatic. The aroma of walnut leaves and chatons is very spicy. The oil oxidizes black and is the base for the black stain and wood treatment traditionally used here. The fresh oil pressed from the nuts is used on salads and as a seasoning. Fresh walnut oil on white or feve beans is delicious. We use walnuts fresh in salads, ground in pastry as a "breading" on pan fried veal and chicken or fish. Walnuts are used in cheese spreads and dried sausages

There are many local variations of a gateau aux noix. My favorite is a filled gateau, like a tart. The pastry is made with flour and ground walnuts, sugar and butter. The filling is either creme fraiche or in my variation, yoghurt mixed with chopped nuts, sugar and some cornstarch....then when the gateau is cooked, it is napped with chocolate and decorated with fresh walnuts.....

There are a few famous regional distilled liqueurs made from the green shells which cover the nuts, but I make a batch of Vin de Noix, which is the classic aperatif of the Dordogne, every year. I have been making for the last few years from immature green walnuts, usually collected on June 1st. They are pierced with a nail, then steeped for a few weeks in eau de vie. Here, in the country, licenses are passed in families for the production of eau de vie, which is fruit alcohol, pretty high proof stuff. The licensees usually have alembics on trailers which they set up in the villages near a spring and the farmers all bring their barrels of fermenting plums. It's quite a social scene.

Here in Badefols d'Ans, the broullier sets up all winter long in a tent next to the spring.
This year, though, I decided to make the original recipe I learned about 11 years ago, which I believe makes a more aromatic final product. Instead of immature nuts, I collected the sticky baby leaves and flowers from trees. The oil is quite powerful and turns your hands brown pretty fast!
I took the leaves and crushed them into a liter of eau de vie. They will steep in it for a month. Then I buy 3 bottles of new Corbiere dry red wine. I use Corbiere because it is not expensive, and the wine should be good and fruity, but not aged. I mix the wine in a big pot with a kilo of sugar until it is dissolved. Then I add the black, strained, walnut oil infused eau de vie. 
Then, simply put it in fancy bottles and let it sit for three months.....
You could do this with black walnuts and use commercial fruit alcohol in the States. The variety of wine is not that important, it just needs to be a fruity dry red....Try this at home, and let me know how it works!