I have black walnuts....now what do I do?

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About 15 years ago I planted 2 black walnut trees. After about 10 years they started to produce. Last year we finally had what I'd call a "harvest", but I didn't know how to prepare the nuts, so I put them in a barrell, hulls and all intending to take off the hulls when they dried. I was quite dismayed to check on them one day only to see that the hulls had molded. I didn't dare eat the nuts. This year I want to harvest the nuts correctly. Does anyone know how? Should the hulls be removed immediately, or what? And what about shelling....immediately? Should the nuts be used raw, do they need to be roasted first? I understand I'm going to have a heck of a time shelling these nuts as the shells are very hard and thick. I've heard you can run them over with a vehicle. When I planted the trees, I thought I was planting Butternut Trees, but found out last year they are, in fact Black Walnuts.

I appreciate any comments.

-- Nancy in Maine (paintme61@yahoo.com), August 31, 2001

Answers

if the hulls are moldy, it shouldnt matter,, mold cant get into the nut. You have to take of the hull,, crack the shell to get the nut. With black walnuts,, your hand and every tool you use will get black stained also. Use rubber gloves. Some people make a wooden trough, fill them up with walnits, hulls and all,, then drive over them,, the trough keeps them together, mostly. Then you take your time, picking the nut from the shell. Easier than a hammer

-- stan (sopal@net-port.com), August 31, 2001.

To hull black walnuts, we do just as you said. Run over them with the PU, We gather them and dump them in the drive. The outer hull will turn black and will come off easily once they start. You really have to watch the squirrels, they love it when you have done the work for them. My dad told me one time that black walnuts would keep for 20 years in the shell. Don't know that he ever ate a 20 year old black walnut. But I know they will keep for several years. After you pick out the nut, they are ready to eat. I keep mine in the freezer.

-- Belle (gardenbelle@terraworld.net), August 31, 2001.

I read in a crafty mag some crafts a man did with the shells. Very beautiful!! He sliced the walnut like bread with a saw knocked out the nut and did crafts with the shells. On the other had out here in the ozarks you get money for picking them up and turning them in. Its about 10.00 a hundred. Its the kind of thing the kids do out here to make money. I have sat in a car line for 30 min waiting for my son to turn his in. The nut it self it wonderful and runs about 10.00 a pound at our store. I had ask a women who grew up around here how to crack them to eat and she just laughed and said run over them with your car. LOL I have not bothered with them again.

-- Teresa (c3ranch@socket.net), August 31, 2001.

An old hand crank corn sheller will clean the hulls slick as a whisle. Put them in onion sacks and let them dry. Then get a hammer and block of wood and go at it.

-- Mel Kelly (melkelly@webtv.net), August 31, 2001.

Hi Nancy, lucky you having Black Walnuts! We put ours in burlap bags, not too full either, tied the ends and laid these in the driveway to drive on to hull. Then took a hammer to break and used picks from a nut bowl to pick the meats, they are then ready to eat or put in candy and cakes etc. They do have quite a flavor so maybe a few nut meats will do a great job. To save, put in sealed small baggies or/and in the freezer. This was in New Mexico where they are wild, I sure hope yours are a little larger. Enjoy. Maureen

-- Maureen Stevenson (maureen@mtaonline.net), September 01, 2001.


Thanks so much for the good answers! I'm looking forward to my harvest this year. My husband can be quite the inventor at times. When he sees me whacking the nuts with a hammer or running over them with the truck, he's sure to come up with something quite creative. I like the idea of carefully sawing the shells to use for crafts. I have a band saw that should work well. We have a lot of craft fairs in my area before Christmas. I'll have to check into this and see what I can come up with. I can already see cute little turtles made with walnut shells, can you?

-- Nancy in Maine (paintme61@yahoo.com), September 01, 2001.

Nancy, The outer hull makes a wonderful brown dye, which is why everyone says to wear rubber gloves when you're working with them. I keep a garbage can full of the dye to use on my handmade baskets. You can either boil some in water or fill up an old pillow case with them (I use the whole thing, nut and all), drop in a container of water and leave until the color is as dark as you want. Don't leave the walnuts in the water indefinitely or you'll have a nasty smelling mess on top of the water.

-- Katherine in KY (KyKatherine@Yahoo.com), September 01, 2001.

Nancy, delighted to hear that you'll be enjoying black walnut treats. Half a century ago (plus a few years) I sat at my mother's knee while she cracked walnuts. Her favorite tools were a lightweight hammer, an old flat iron (handle-less), and a small crochet hook. She laid a short length of 1x4 board across her knees, placed the flat iron upside down on top of that and went to work. The crochet hook was just the thing for picking out pieces of black walnut -- they tend to stick in the shell. The job is tedious, but the reward is stupendous. There is NOTHING like black walnut fudge on a cold winter evening! A basic sugar cookie recipe embellished with some finely chopped black walnuts is heavenly. Enjoy! Mother always let the nuts dry until the hulls were shrivelled; in that condition, they were easily knocked off with the hammer and stained hands weren't much of a problem.

-- Anita Johnston (anitajohn@yahoo.com), September 01, 2001.

My best suggestion is to wear gloves when removing that outer covering. It REALLY stains the hands!

-- ~Rogo (rogo2020@yahoo.com), September 02, 2001.

My husband's grandfather and father used to shell black walnuts. Grandpa G was a slight man who was about 5'5" tall with very large, muscular hands, having spent most of his life farming a half section of land with a mule team. He and 'Big Jim' would haul them in on the back of the pickup by the bushel basket full and throw them out on the driveway. For several days, up to a couple or three weeks, they ran over them with their vehicles as they came and went on other farm business until the hulls fell off, then they would rake up the nuts (they're like rocks by then) and shovel them back into the baskets. Grandpa G took them out to the machine shop where the anvil was, set them on the anvil surface, and clobbered them with hammers. Once the shells were cracked open, the family took nut picks and picked out the meats. You'll need to refrigerate or freeze them at that point to keep them from turning rancid.

-- Claudia Glass (glasss2001@prodigy.net), September 04, 2001.


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