Hilary and Dori are right about nuts.  The best way to find out how rancid
(or simply stale) your nuts are is to compare them with fresh nuts,
straight off the tree.  We have a walnut tree in the back yard and the
difference in flavour, weight and texture between my home grown nuts and
those from shops is remarkable.  With walnuts, for example, I choose to
eat the tough, fibrous, bark-like partitions between the nut segments in
my own nuts.  I have tried this with bought nuts and I might as well be
eating firewood.  Also, my own nuts have black marks on the shells whereas
most of those in shops have been bleached.  Bleached!  It's only after you
eat the fresh food - any food - that you realize how second-rate the stuff
is
we get in the shops.  Even city-dwellers can play this comparison game:
grow your own tomatoes in a large pot with excellent, continuous care
regarding sunlight, shade, moisture and organic soil. If you choose an
heirloom variety and then compare its fruits with specimens from the
supermarket, the same thing applies: the differences are startling.

Keith