When I put in the orchard, I’m also going to include some nuts. I will likely get some hazelnuts and hardy almonds. I’m not sure the hardy almonds are as good as California almonds, but I’m going to give them a shot.
Not really nuts, but I’m also thinking of giving peanuts a shot in the garden. They are supposed to do fairly well in this area even though I’m not in the south. It will give me a source of some of our protein. They are also a good source of fat. But they are time consuming to shell out. I did some reading and came across the Universal Nut Sheller. This uses a couple concrete stones to shell the peanuts. If I plant peanuts, I’m going to have to get the plans to make one of these.
But that’s all for the future. What can I do today? Well I have several black walnut trees around the property. I know they are not as good as English walnuts, but it is what I have at the moment. I decided to see what I can do with them.
6 gallons of black walnuts
My son was complaining that he wanted to earn some money, so I gave him one of my old Ale Pails and sent him to one of the black walnut trees. The deal was that if he filled the bucket, he’d earn some money. He filled the 6 gallon bucket without much problem. He could have probably filled another half bucket if he’s have looked through the bushes.
Removing the husks
After he brought them up, it was my turn to do some work. I had to remove the husks from the nut. What I find works best for me is to lay them on the driveway and step on them. This cracks open the husk, making it easy to remove it from the nut. In the lower left, that black walnut has been stepped on and split, ready to be peeled open. On the right are the husks from those nuts on the left. There’s a lot of husk to throw away.
A box of nuts
I would peel off the husk and drop the nut into a box. I ended up with probably a gallon and a half of nuts. They are still very wet. I’ll need to lay them out where the squirrels can’t get to them to allow them to dry. I’m not quite sure how I’ll keep the squirrels out, but I’m going to try.
Stained gloves
Luckily I remembered the dye that’s in black walnut husks. It will stain anything it touches. My hands would have been really messy for days if I didn’t put on some gloves. Even with the gloves, I ended up with stained index finger. I must have put a hole in the gloves while working on the nuts.
I’m not completely sure what I’m going to do with them yet. Maybe I’ll see how pesto tastes with black walnuts in it.
We also collect black walnuts. Right now we have about 1/3 of the walnuts from our one tree picked up, about 35 gallons. We pick them up with a broom stick with a square piece of wood nailed to the end with nails going out that we stab the walnut husk with and drop them in the wheelbarrow. I use to step on them on concrete but now I roll them over a piece of chicken wire with 1/2″ squares with a 2x4x12 long. To crack them heat them up so the crack between the two hulls separates. Do it over a grill. Don’t worry about squirrels getting them, they are more attracted to the ones with the husk, the smell of it. Anyway, there’s too much for them anyway.
I’ve never collected them before. If we like them, it will become a regular event. There are still a bunch of them hanging on the trees. Once they come down, I’ll collect them also.
I can’t quite visualize your technique for removing the hull.
When I was younger, we used to help grandma with the black walnuts from the tree out back. I’m sorry to say I don’t remember the processing (I was about 6 to 8 years old). I loved them. I’ll keep an eye out for your next post concerning these so I can follow suit. They are falling off the tree in droves right now.
I’m just winging it. I know I have to rinse them and then dry them out. I’m trying to clean them up tonight. I’ll have them drying over the weekend.
I still have a bunch in the trees. If these work out, I’ll gather more.
Cracking them is not easy, I have a piece of wood with a hole in it and put the walnut in there and hit it with a sludge hammer. Then you pick the pieces out, but when the walnuts are put into a cookie dough there is always a piece of shell which can be hard on the teeth. It is not an easy task, which is why hardly anyone bothers with it.
I’ve found a lot of different ways listed on various blogs. What I’m probably going to do is make use of a vise. That way I don’t have chunks of shell flying everywhere.
I doubt that I’ll harvest them again. But they are a plentiful in this area and a shame to waste. I just had to give them a shot at least once.
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