Black Walnuts...

[generator12]

I have two beautiful black walnut trees, each of which is presently loaded with nuts.

As any of you who have ever managed to get the green husk off the shell, and the nut out of it, it is a messy and difficult job. (I don't know how the squirrels around here can stand the taste/odor of the husks, but they seem to do it. They leave pieces of these husks everywhere...!)

I'm just wondering if anyone here has a straight-forward method of getting these extremely delicious nuts out of the god-awful casings in which mother nature has decided to put them.

Sorry, no reward for the information - just my heartfelt thanks...!

 

[colbyt]

Re: Black Walnuts...

I fear getting the meat out of the hull is always going to be a terrible job. Laying the nuts out on a hard sloped surface and allowing them to lay there until the green hulls to soften does make them easier to remove.

 

[JB]

Re: Black Walnuts...

I had a great black walnut tree when I lived in Memphis. I used to scatter them in my gravel drive and de-husk them by driving over them repeatedly. Never had any luck cracking the shells with anything other than a bench vise. My one tree planted from seed (nut?) fifteen years ago is bearing well this year so I guess I'll try the driveway treatment again.

Finding a way to eat the strong flavored meats that is okay with my cardiologist and my PCP (type 2 diabetes) can be a challenge. I will try chopping them up and adding them to a Waldorf Salad.

The Hideout has about 50 bearing pecan trees, so you have to really want black walnuts to go to that trouble.

 

[Oshkosh1]

Re: Black Walnuts...

Black Walnut trees serve only two useful purposes IMHO.
1. Cut down and used to make rifle stocks and pistol grips.
2. Use the WHOLE nuts...green husk and all...to keep vermin out of campers, boats, snomobile engines. Just put a few into whatever you're storing, acts like a natural repellant! Kind of a natural moth-ball.

The Hideout has about 50 bearing pecan trees, so you have to really want black walnuts to go to that trouble.

My parents still live in Central Texas where they also have many Pecan trees so they contract the shaking/gathering and I am usually up to my eyeballs in various forms(chopped/whole/flavored). Don't know how the crop was this year, although they did have a relatively mild summer...with rain...compared to last years disaster!

 

[bassman284]

Re: Black Walnuts...

The best way to hull them is the old fashioned hand-crank corn shellers - the kind you feed one ear at a time. My grandparents had one when I was a kid (~55-60 years ago) and it worked pretty good on black walnuts. You would hull them while they were still green or slighltly brown, let them sit and dry for a couple of months and then crack them. They also used it to hull hickory nuts.

I found number of these old shellers on ebay including the one linked.

http://compare.ebay.com/like/330794089881

Google 'Black Walnut Huller' and you'll get a bunch of them. JB's method works pretty good too, just takes a little longer.

If you Google 'Black Walnut Cracker you will find a bunch of handy devices for this purpose.

No easy way to get inside a black walnut, but it's worth the trip.

 

[generator12]

Re: Black Walnuts...

I had a great black walnut tree when I lived in Memphis. I used to scatter them in my gravel drive and de-husk them by driving over them repeatedly.

Wow! That is an interesting approach! However I have concrete, so I've got to be ready for a driveway full of rust-colored stains if I use it. And those damned stains last all year.

Still, I'll consider it. (Those nuts are soooooo good!)

Thanks JB.

 

[generator12]

Re: Black Walnuts...

Thanks to you also, Bassman. I'll consider the corn husker as well.

 

[partskenn]

Re: Black Walnuts...

I have also used the Chevrolet husker in the driveway. It works fairly well, plus it gives the neighbors something to talk about.

 

[MrBigStuff]

Re: Black Walnuts...

Grew up in New Berlin and also had a black walnut right next to the driveway. We learned the vehicle husking trick inadvertantly. The tree was both a blessing and a curse. Walnuts falling on your car, husks everywhere along with black faced squirrels, delicious nut meat.

When the tree finally met its demise, we had a hard time giving away the trunk. It was at least 20ft long and 3ft in diameter. Beautiful wood, I thought people would be knocking down the doors to get it but no such luck...

 

[njrextreme]

Re: Black Walnuts...

We put them in buckets and let them get all black and soft. Then you get out the rubber gloves and start husking. Then the go back in the bucket to dry out longer.

 

[Fishing Dude too]

Re: Black Walnuts...

Know of 2 ways.

1) Take hardware cloth 3/8 mesh taked to a 2x8 frame of size needed 4x8 works well set on 2 saw horses and let dry out.

2) Make a bin to feed to a wheel with a tire mounted to it held down with a spring then drive wheel with an electric motor then set up tarp to cartch nuts and hulls with a peice of plywood next to a building turn on and feed into huller.

 

[BlkY2k]

Re: Black Walnuts...

This guy seems to have it down pat. http://tomclothier.hort.net/page21.html

 

[colbyt]

Re: Black Walnuts...

This guy seems to have it down pat. http://tomclothier.hort.net/page21.html

That article makes me want to go harvest a few and try it out. I find the vice cracking to be especially interesting.

 

[greenbush future]

Re: Black Walnuts...

After 20 years of dealing with my Walnut shade tree, and the mess, I have decided it's much easier to just go buy a bag, and leave the nuts for the squirrels. I have a bunch of mature trees and they can be very messy, need to bleach the driveway every year we have nuts. My main tree didn't produce this year, and I am really happy about that. Last year I think I picked up 15-20 FULL wheelbarrows of nuts off one tree. Not sure what causes them to skip some years, but this year, I am happy.
Leave em for the rodents.

One year they decided to fill my 19 foot Spectrum, every hatch and storage comparment was stuffed full of nuts. I mean stuffed! I no longer store my boat anywhere near these trees, I'm still finding nuts in the boat and that was 3 years ago. In Michigan all animals love and eat these things.

 

[generator12]

Re: Black Walnuts...

This guy seems to have it down pat. http://tomclothier.hort.net/page21.html

Wow! You gotta LOVE walnuts to go through all that. But I asked, didn't I..?

Hmmm. They are very good, aren't they? Maybe, just maybe I'll try it. Of course Bassman had a good suggestion too. Hmmm....

 

[dwco5051]

Re: Black Walnuts...

Black Walnut trees serve only two useful purposes IMHO.
1. Cut down and used to make rifle stocks and pistol grips.
2. Use the WHOLE nuts...green husk and all...to keep vermin out of campers, boats, snomobile engines. Just put a few into whatever you're storing, acts like a natural repellant! Kind of a natural moth-ball.

There is a third good use. The husks are a good natural dye for traps. My property close to town had a lot of walnut trees and I used the driveway method of husking. A couple of by buddies who trapped would come and gather husks to dye their steel traps.

 

[joed]

Re: Black Walnuts...

My uncle used to use his cement mixer filled with nuts and rocks. Don't remember if he added water or not.