Black Walnuts

[gregintenn]

So I picked up a wheel barrow full out of the yard this evening. I've never tried hulling and shelling more than one or two at a time. I'd appreciate any tips or tricks for getting the green hull off.

[bigun]

Scatter them in the drive way for a week or so and just drive over them.

[No_0ne]

I hated those things.  My father made me pick them up constantly, although we almost never bothered to shell them due to the bother and mess.  Mostly I hauled them to a pile in the field outside the yard.  Today, there are several black walnut trees growing in that field ...

[nightrunner]

3 hours ago, bigun said:

Scatter them in the drive way for a week or so and just drive over them.

This is what my parents did as well. It is quite a bit of work to get the meat out but black walnuts are by far my favorite nut.

[Will]

My dad had a thick board with three holes drilled in it,pick the best one and hit walnut through with any kind of hammer. Got most of shell off then wash with garden hose in a week to get

dried rest off.  Secure them good as tree rats will pull out screens or chew through wood walls to get at them. Wear rubber gloves or you will have black stained hands for weeks.

[Omega]

Yeah, I've got two large trees, fixing to be one.  I hate them things, can't walk in the backyard without almost rolling an ankle.  The roots will kill some other trees, lost a couple fruit trees before I figured that out.  Did learn a good trick to get fishing worms with them though.

[Dolomite_supafly]

3 hours ago, Omega said:

Yeah, I've got two large trees, fixing to be one.  I hate them things, can't walk in the backyard without almost rolling an ankle.  The roots will kill some other trees, lost a couple fruit trees before I figured that out.  Did learn a good trick to get fishing worms with them though.

And........

[Murgatroy]

We had one growing up. I would have to pick them up or the lawn mower would hit them and create projectiles. We always piled them in the driveway and drove the cars over them, hosed them off then let them dry. I would spend months with black hands.

[Omega]

56 minutes ago, Dolomite_supafly said:

And........

Yea, so all you do is soak them (cracked but whole) in a 5gl bucket of water for about 10 or 15 minutes, then pour the water out over an area that may have worms, they come right up.  Have a clean bucket of water handy to rinse them off or they'll die.

[Wingshooter]

Racist thread, lol. 

J/k

 

We have about a half dozen huge trees in one section of our woods. It's made that part of the woods really cool but hard to walk through. I've intended to pick some up, but the ground is littered with old and newer ones.

[peejman]

One of my neighbors has some trees. We've tried harvesting the nuts but it wasn't worth the effort as lots of them already had been nibbled on by worms. 

[bersaguy]

Back when I was a kid our house had a chunk rock circle driveway and I would gather Black Walnuts all up and down the road in neighbors yards and bring them home and scatter them all in the driveway. In about 2 or three weeks of driving in it I would go out and get all the nuts I could find and when my mother told me to I would split them in half with a hammer and then take them in the house. My mother would sit with a nut pick and dig the walnuts out of the hulls. I was always glad to do this cause it meant Fall was in the air. Hunting season was coming and the Holidays were also coming and my mother use to begin baking all kinds of homemade cookies and many of them had Black Walnuts in them. The house always smelled so good for about a month and a half. I can close my eyes and still remember how great the house smelled 60 years ago.

About 4 years ago a buddy of mine bring me about a 1/2 bushel of Black walnuts for my squirrels and I thanked him but in the back of my mind I thought the city squirrels may not eat them. But I spead them out in my driveway and parking area in front of my house. The next day it was funny cause I watched 3 little gray squirrels collecting these wall nuts still with green hulls and they were taking them out in the back yard and my neighbors back yard and burying them as fast as they could. Late in the winter after they had been buried the squirrels would dig up a couple and finish hulling them and man can they open one of the suckers up...........LOL! Not a problem at all for them.

Oh yea, I had 3 walnut trees about 10 inches tall try and begin growing in my back yard and Ronnie my neighbor said he had about 5 trying to grow in his yard. We both pulled them up and kept our eyes peeled and only had 2 more try to grow and we got those also.

[owejia]

Some of the old timers used a corn sheller to take the husk off. After  they are dry and ready to crack sprinkle water on the dry nuts and let them sit a while before cracking with a walnut cracker and the hulls will be flexible and not shatter to bad, sometimes you can get the meat out in halves. Love black walnut ice cream and my wife makes a 4 layer black walnut cake that will tantalize your taste buds.

[Wingshooter]

Interesting...

 

 

Edited September 27, 2017 by Wingshooter

[gregintenn]

15 minutes ago, Wingshooter said:

Interesting...

 

 

Now that's pretty cool!

[seez52]

we always put them in a toe sack and then put them in the driveway.

[gregintenn]

I've decided this is a fool's errand. I've spent several hours breaking walnuts today, and I've recovered 2 cups of nuts.

[Garufa]

59 minutes ago, gregintenn said:

I've decided this is a fool's errand. I've spent several hours breaking walnuts today, and I've recovered 2 cups of nuts.

Makes you wonder how new walnut trees are even grown.

[Ronald_55]

8 minutes ago, Garufa said:

Makes you wonder how new walnut trees are even grown.

Well when 2 walnut trees really like each other......

[gunwhatgun]

1 hour ago, gregintenn said:

I've decided this is a fool's errand. I've spent several hours breaking walnuts today, and I've recovered 2 cups of nuts.

.......and that is why they cost 9 bucks a bag in the store now.

[Garufa]

10 minutes ago, Ronald_55 said:

Well when 2 walnut trees really like each other......

A nut gets busted.  

[gregintenn]

11 minutes ago, gunwhatgun said:

.......and that is why they cost 9 bucks a bag in the store now.

I think those are English walnuts. They are much easier to shell.

[DWARREN123]

Driveway for personnel use. We use to take them to the Co-op unshelled and sell them along with pelts and squirrel tails.

Been a real long time ago. 

[seez52]

On 10/7/2017 at 4:41 PM, gregintenn said:

I've decided this is a fool's errand. I've spent several hours breaking walnuts today, and I've recovered 2 cups of nuts.

My mom and dad really liked them. He would sit on the porch with a hammer and short section of rail road iron and crack them. I never like them enough to spend that much time shelling them. I'm think part of the attraction was that they came off the place and you didn't let things like that go to waste. Black walnut pie was a favorite, although not for me.

[frankmako]

i got over 25 trees on the farm that give some large nuts each year.  we put them on the dirt driveway by our barn and run over them with a tractor.  after they dry out we knock off the rest of the hull.  then i set by the smoke house breaking them open with a hammer on top of a very large iron i-bean.  lots of work for the return, but you don't waste.