According to Italian tradition, June 24 is the best day to make nocino, a lightly sweet, bitter black liqueur made from unripe green walnuts. This day is said to be the prime time to pick walnuts for nocino-making because they haven't yet formed their hard interior shells. Expanding on a tradition I started last summer, we hosted a little nocino-making party last night. Alex gathered a basket full of pungent, Pine Sol-y green walnuts from a neighbor's tree and we got to work