Phred, please post something when you come back. I'd like to rename this thread "Origins: Nutting Girl" and continue the research we've done on this song. A specific title will make this information easier to find.
Thanks.
-Joe Offer, Mudcat Music Editor-
joe@mudcat.org

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Here's the Traditional Ballad Index entry on this song:

Nutting Girl, The

DESCRIPTION: A young girl goes out to gather nuts. A farmer stops plowing and begins to sing. The girl hears his sweet voice, and "what nuts she had got, poor girl, she threw them all away." They lie together, then go their ways. The song warns girls against dallying
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1895; tune 1792 (Bunting)
KEYWORDS: courting seduction music harvest farming sex pregnancy
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,South),Scotland(Aber)) US(NE)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Kennedy 186, "The Nutting Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
GreigDuncan7 1475, "A-Nutting I'll Not Go" (4 texts, 3 tunes)
Copper-SoBreeze, pp. 214-215, "The Nutting Maid" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 652, "Nutting Girl" (1 text)
Palmer-ECS, #72, "The Nutting Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
OShaughnessy-Grainger 15, "The Nutting Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck-Maine, pp. 108-109, "The Jolly Plough Boy" (1 text, 1 tune, in which the plough boy and the squire's daughter end up getting married; I suspect two songs have joined)
DT, NUTGIRL*
Roud #509
RECORDINGS:
Warde Ford, "A Nutting We Will Go" [incomplete] (AFS 4200 A2, 1938; in AMMEM/Cowell)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Battle of Harlaw" (tune, per GreigDuncan7)
cf. "Mowing Match Song" (partial tune, according to Palmer)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Lie Owre
Young Jackie
NOTES: The recording lists "Our Goodman" as an alternate title for Ford's recording, but "Our Goodman" it ain't. - PJS
Last updated in version 3.7
File: K186

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The Ballad Index Copyright 2016 by Robert B. Waltz and David G. Engle.

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And the lyrics for the song from our Digital Tradition Folk Song Database:

NUTTING GIRL (from DT)

Now come all you jovial fellows, come listen to my song
It is a little ditty and it won't detail you long
It's of a fair young damel, and she lived down in Kent
Arose one summer's morning, and she a-nutting went

CHO: With my fal-lal to my ral-tal-lal
Whack-fol-the-dear-ol-day
And what few nuts that poor girl had
She threw them all away.

It's of a brisk young farmer, was ploughing of his land
He called unto his horses, to bid them gently stand
As he sit down upon his plough, all for a song to sing
His voice was so melodious, it made the valleys ring

It's of this fair young damsel, she was nutting in the wood
His voice was so melodious, it charmed her as she stood
In that lonely wood, she could no longer stay
And what few nuts she had, poor girl, she threw them all away

She then came to young Johnny, as he sit on his plough
She said: ``Young man I really feel I cannot tell you how''
She took her to some shady broom, and there he laid her down
Said she: ``Young man, I think I feel the world
go round and round''

He went back to his horses to finish off his song
He said: ``My pretty fair maid, your mother will think you long''
But she flung her arms all round his neck
as they went o'er the plain
And she said: ``My dear, I should like to see
the world go round again''

Now, come all you young women, take warning by my song
If you should a-nutting go, don't stay from home too long
For if you should stay too late, to hear the ploughboy sing
You might have a young farmer to nurse up in the spring

Recorded by J. Kirkpatrick on Morris On
@seduction @bawdy
filename[ NUTGIRL
TUNE FILE: NUTGIRL
CLICK TO PLAY
SOF