We have probably 1,000 black walnut trees on our property and we've never eaten any of the nuts. DS got me a heavy-duty black walnut cracker last Christmas, and I'm trying to deal with a few walnuts this year.
I won't go in to deal, if nobody has done this before. I need a few tips. Thanks!
P.S.........I find it incredible that as hard as their shells are, tiny little worms can actually get through. Nature is amazing.
We (the four slave-labor children in the family) would fill bushel baskets of black walnuts in the fall and lay them out in the hayloft to dry. Then we'd spend time in the winter cracking them and would sell the nutmeat. We each had brick, and on top of the brick was glued a sponge with an X cut into it. In the "X" we would place the walnut and crack it with a hammer. The deep sponge prevented the shell from shattering all over the place (sorta). We would take turns cracking and picking out the nutmeat. Just be sure you wear gloves or you'll end up with walnut-colored skin.
Favorite recipe:
Black Walnut and Oatmeal Cookies
3/4 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. white sugar
1 egg
1-1/4 c. butter
1 t. vanilla
3 c. oatmeal
1-1/2 c. flour
1/2 c. raisins or chocolate chips (optional - I left them out)
1-1/4 t. cinnamon
1 t. baking soda
3/4 t. salt
1/4 t. nutmeg
1 c. black walnuts
Mix sugar, egg, butter and vanilla together. Stir in dry ingredients and black walnuts. Spoon onto a cookie sheet. Bake in preheated oven at 350°F. for 10-minutes. Remove from oven and let cool. Makes 3-dozen (I always got at least 6-dozen cookies.)
The walnut shells are covered with a substance that will be on your hands for a long time. Definitely wear gloves. We had a wooden trough that had a channel the width of a car tire. We put the walnuts on the trouh and drove over them with the car.
CathyA, I have to say I'm quite jealous. Veneer grade black walnut trees are very marketable and valuable.
I used to be one of the slave labor force for my grandmas for those accursed things.
I think that's the key to the enterprise :-)
Thanks everyone. Yes, I went to a doc's appointment today with brown thumbs. haha I had on gloves when I was peeling off the husk, but had a couple holes in the gloves.
Yep....I lined them up in the driveway and ran over them with my golf cart. haha Makes it pretty easy.
I wasn't sure how much I had to clean them up. I washed them off several times and shook them in a container, but some of them still have some black "stuff" on them. I'm thinking that will dry up and come off. I've read that you're supposed to air dry them for a couple days, then hang them up to "cure" for a couple weeks in a mesh bag. I think that's just to get the meats to shrink a little, so they're better to get out. This nut cracker that DS got me is pretty cool. I think it's called "Get Crackin" nut cracker.
Gosh Lessisbest.........a cup of meats sounds like it would take hours of work to get that. haha I guess we're just too used to store-bought convenience. Anyhow.....this is a good and interesting new thing for me to do. Plus....I always felt bad that we were letting them go to waste. Actually....they never went to waste. The squirrels survived on them, plus they planted tons more of the trees for us. I would almost call the trees nuisance trees.........They can grow anywhere. And they start producing nuts in just a couple of years. Supposedly the juglone in it doesn't let anything grow around it........but everything grows around it here......especially the invasive Japanese bush honeysuckle. haha
Its funny.....all year round you can hear squirrels in the trees gnawing on them. They sure have to work hard to get the good stuff.
We have a large black walnut tree in front of our house. The squirrels love 'em. But I don't know as they work really hard -- watching a squirrel go after the husk on a walnut is like watching Heckle and Jeckle eating an ear of corn. And they don't care where the chips fall....Originally Posted by CathyA
[ETA]We let the squirrels have 'em. I don't like the taste of black walnuts and they're too much work for something I don't like.
Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome. - Booker T. Washington
Black. Walnut. Pie.[ETA]We let the squirrels have 'em. I don't like the taste of black walnuts and they're too much work for something I don't like.
I visited a friend of mine a few years ago in Missouri and, during our road trip, we encountered some town's Black Walnut Festival. Black walnut ice cream, black walnut pie, black walnut coffee cake, black walnut candy, black walnut this and that. We tried a bunch of items. Don't like it. Maybe there is some concoction that would make me love them. But I'm OK with things the way they are.
Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome. - Booker T. Washington
We drove over ours with the car, too.
SteveinMN,
Trust me, you would like black walnut furniture, not the edible kind.
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