u/Masked_Daisy

Hello all!

Does anyone know the story behind this sign? It's in Cabbagetown.

Is she looking for Greek rentals? Or is she Greek? Did someone accuse Julie of being a crackhead? I have so many questions.

Thank-you. 💛

I love this for Lush.

Wenwan walnuts (sometimes called iron walnuts, because of their thick shells) have been used as fidget toys in China for a few hundred years. (Since the Han dynasty)

As they're played with, they slowly develop a reddish patina from absorbing the oils in a person's hands & the ridges start to smooth out from friction.

Having a well worn pair was considered a sign of patience and quiet scholarly dedication. I thought the people on this sub would enjoy looking at a few examples.

Title: A Brief Explanation of Three-Ridged Walnuts

In general, there are two types of three-ridged walnuts.

1. Naturally triquetrous varieties, such as Wen Shan

The first type includes varieties such as Wen Shan, which are naturally triquetrous.

The price of these walnuts is usually about the same as ordinary walnuts, and much lower than the high-quality grades of ordinary walnuts, such as:

• original-tree varieties
• first-generation grafted walnuts
• particularly well-matched and mature pair on the same tree

2. Three ridges caused by natural mutation

The second type refers to walnuts that normally belong to two-ridged varieties, such as White Lion or Sizuolou, but naturally mutate into three ridges with an extremely small probability.

These walnuts are very expensive — much more expensive than ordinary walnuts.

The fundamental reason is rarity. The probability of such walnuts appearing each year is less than 0.01%, or even lower. With such a tiny base, finding two similar walnuts to form a pair becomes extremely difficult.

Therefore, the difference between these two categories is very significant.

You can clearly see the difference in Figure 1 and Figure 2:

• Figure 1: Wen Shan
• Figure 2: Three-ridged “White Lion”

There is a huge difference between them in terms of shape, fullness of lines, and cortex maturity.

Because of this, there are many fakes on the market.

The most common fake is made by splicing, using three walnuts to create one pair of Three-ridged “White Lion”, as shown in Figure 3.

Figure 4 shows three-ridged walnuts with three buds that have just sprouted.

In fact, growers and sellers usually know very clearly how many ridges a walnut has. So I do not recommend buying so-called “blind boxes” of green walnuts.

For those who truly understand the field, this information is basically transparent. What's inside the green walnuts is also transparent, and the excellent ones will not enter the market in the form of green walnuts.