Out walking, I came across this giant walnut shell, which was a strange coincidence because, immediately prior to my walk, I'd been shelling and chopping up some of our home-grown walnuts destined for a new cake recipe tomorrow.

I couldn't believe my eyes. It was all by itself on the footpath, no tree anywhere in sight it could have come off. It looked like a walnut shell, but was huge - was it a walnut? Was it some other sort of nut shell?

I looked it up when I went home. Apparently there are walnut trees, especially ones like Cooke's Giant Sweet Walnut [www.treesofantiquity.com], which DO produce giant walnuts, and there are photos on the internet. [steemit.com]

My one was in two halves, with one side missing a broken off bit, and there was no walnut left inside. Photo attached, showing it next to my normal walnuts.

Is anyone already aware of giant walnuts? Have you seen them in NZ?

Omg, I've never seen such a thing. How cool is that to run across? I wonder if they have the same taste, sometimes bigger things can be a bit different.

Walnuts don't grow well in the north where I live, so very jealous of you for that luxury

Wow J1, I have never seen anything like it.

Wow that is enormous, I have never seen any of that size before.

I remember when I was growing up in Christchurch, we lived in Waltham and a friend lived across the park from us and his parents had one of those trees, very old I think and they said it was an english walnut tree, they were lovely to eat and yes they were huge, great for throwing at each other if I remember rightly