Black Walnuts

[bigtiller]

I have a wagon full of black walnuts that I would like to husk and eat or maybe give away. I have never done this and am looking for some advice on what to do next. I tryed eating one and decided they need to dry out first so I have them in the garage with a fan blowing over them now.

 

[frank_f15]

I have 4 black walnut trees scatrred around my yard , MAY YEARS AGO we tried doing what you want to do, we found they are two hard to open and the meat comes out in pieces and not really worth the effort. now you may have a differnt type of black walnut or you may not mind the time involved, so go at it. Best to husk them 1st as they will dry quicker. but as far as i amconcerned they are good for the squirles, putting black stains on my driveway and dulling my mower blades.
THIS OF COURSE IS JUST MHO

 

[meadowlarkponds]

Black walnuts are absolutely delicious. The reward is well worth the effort. Here in East Texas, most of them have been cut out for lumber and they are hard to find much to my regret.

In my childhood, we would gather them in feed sacks from out in the woods and lay them out in the driveway. Driving cars back and forth over them would break down the husks. Then what we couldn't eat, we sold for a pretty good price back then.

I really miss them and loved your post for the memories it brought back.

 

[Taylortractornut]

I remember when I was a littlekid my grandfather used to take walnuts and being inventive used to husk them in an old Cement mixer. He used chunks of steel, rocks bricks and ather abrasives and such. Plug it in for a few hours and then dump it out. It would husk them out clean. I thing he Used pea gravel up to bricks to get a mix of things to completely clean them. Onother use for some of the green fresh ones is to bust up the husks in a pillow case with a hammer or car then chunk it into a small pond. It stuns the fish. I know some folks that do this to get fish out of their farm ponds.

 

[LBrown59]

1*Black walnuts are absolutely delicious.
2*In my childhood, we would gather them in feed sacks from out in the woods and lay them out in the driveway. Driving cars back and forth over them would break down the husks. .
3*I really miss them and loved your post for the memories it brought back.

1*they sure are.
2*there was a tree across the street right in front of the house I grew up in from 1943 to 1964 .
Mom dad and me and my brother would gather the nuts from it and another tree about half a block away and scatter them in the gravel drive way .
driving over them done a fine job of husking them.
3*Really fond sentimental memories of long ago.


L . B .

 

[bky]

I have I would guess 30 to 50 trees maybe more and I have tried to do the walnut thing but I found them bitter tasting (after all the work of getting them out of the shell).

 

[Bill Barrett]

We have three trees, everytime we tried using them they were too wormy to eat.

 

[Flatheadyoungin]

a fella i used to work with (he retired) loved to eat walnuts and he had many trees....

he would take them to a local farm supply store and they would hull them for him...he said it was cheap.....i don't know an amount but he was pretty frugal....

he froze them and cooked them in everything......always had them as a snack...

seems like i read somewhere that you could use a corn shucker to hull walnuts.....i could be way off on this.......i've seen these old, hand powered shuckers on craigslist for about $100....but, again, it may be a different machine

 

[DocHeb]

My old-German grandfather would make a wood trough, 12"x12"x96", fill it with walnuts, and drive one of his steel-wheeled Model T wheels back and forth to open the shells.

 

[RayMunising]

To remove the husks I just spread them out on our limestone driveway and drive over them a couple times with my lawn tractor ... using the tires to break the husks. Then wear rubber gloves and remove the nut from the husk. Rubber gloves are very important or you'll stain your hands. Then let the nuts dry a month or two. My wife loves to make cookies with them. Much more flavorful then English walnuts you buy in the store but a fair amount of work. I personally like my wife's cookies regardless of the nuts she puts in 'em.