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My sister that lives in Georgia sent me about two pounds of shelled black walnuts and 2 pounds of home made chocolate fudge. Yesterday, I made two batches of short bread with about a cup of nuts mixed in with each.

I have not had this since growing up m in Pennsylvania 70 years ago. Four of us kids would sit down in the cold garage around the holidays and crack/shell black walnuts using a piece of railroad iron and a ball peen hammer. My mother would make dark chocolate fudge with black walnuts or black walnut shortbread.

Brings back fond memories for sure.

My dad used to do the same thing. We would end up with 4 or 5 quart mason jars full, to this day I don’t like English walnut, I prefer black walnuts.

Grade school: Mom got wind of a gravel road somewhere that had walnut trees growing along it that were there for the collecting. Sunday afternoon found her, Dad, and me there loading them up. Back home, I was in charge of using a hammer to remove the outer covering, Dad breaking them, and Mom digging out the meats. Advance to later in the week. My teacher gives Mom a concerned call about noticing that my fingers had a suspicious stain on them, perhaps from smoking. In the midst of the subsequent execution without benefit of trial, my guardian angel clicked on the light in Mom's head and she realized that the stain was from the walnut husks.

Love black walnut cake and ice cream. Been quite a few years since I have had either. Really, all my fault. There are many trees where I hunt and I am just to lazy to gather, husk and break open and pick out. Just the thought of it does bring back some great memories though.

We would gather the walnuts after 1st frost when they fell. Dad would put a snow tire on the drive wheel of our 49 Mercury. Jack it up and block it so it was about an inch off the ground. Then he would stand half a sheet of plywood or what ever we had around and brace it .Start the Merc, put it in gear, and us kids would take turns throwing walnuts with husk under the tire. If tried too early then husks would not come off.

Every so often we would stop and pick the walnuts out of the pile. Then they were put up on the sloped roof of an old shed to dry out for a month or so. Usually by early December. Then we hauled the hulls to the hollow over the hill. I don't think there was kid in school that didn't have stained hands during that time of the year except for a few city kids.We probably had 2-3 bushels each year.

When I went back for dad's funeral a few years ago, I notice several bushels of them s sitting down it the garage. Probably many years old as he didn't have anyone to crack them anymore. He never kept walnut trees close to the house. Nothing would grow under them. He always had a big garden to feed us kids from.

Cracking nuts around the woodstove in the basement. That brings back a few.
Walnuts aren't bad to hammer crack, Butternut are harder, and harder to do.

Hickory nuts just plain sick.
Tough as hell, and small enough that your fingers get cracked too.

A hand corn sheller will take the hulls off the shells, digging the nuts out, well.

Love them. My grand dads farm in the Loess Hills of Iowa was/is full of black walnut trees. Punishment as a kid from mom was sometimes picking out a cup of black walnuts. It sucks!

Disgusting things. Dad forced us to pick them up, husk, and remove the meat. If I ever eat another piece of black walnut fudge it will be too soon.

We had a spot in the driveway where you turned around Just put them there for a few days and the hulls were all mashed off by car tires. Just rake the old hulls away and spread more. Easy peasy. And anyone who ever picked hickory nuts, loved to pick black walnuts. I swear you could starve to death picking hickory nuts to eat.

The dried walnut hulls and household ammonia make an amazing walnut stain. I use a 1 gallon jug, about 1/2 full of small chunks of dried hulls,
and pour the ammonia in until the jug is full. Let it set for approx 6 mos. until you have a nice brown liquid. It should have a walnut smell
by then. Setting longer is OK. When you are happy with the stain pour the liquid off and leave the pulp in the jug to throw away.

TAG

Walnuts (even without bits of hull) do not in any way, shape, or form belong in fudge.

My great grandparents had big black walnut trees in their back yard. Great tasting but hard to shell. I have found memories of sitting with my grandfather, who saw the end of the old West, and eating those black walnuts while he was telling me first hand stories about Charles Goodnight, Billy Dixon, his XIT cowboy friends and relatives, horses and wrangling on the JA and Turkey Track.

I recently bought a farm that had two medium sized trees that my dad thought were crab apples. I got to looking and they are black walnut trees. The mule deer seem to like to hang out under those trees, but I'm not sure if they're eating them. My BIL photographed a BIG mule deer under those trees.

Hickory nuts are sure enough harder to crack and pick, but to me, one of the best tasting nuts. We had a few butter nut trees around, but didn't mess with them much.

Having kids sit around cracking walnuts a heck of a lot better better than having them staring at a phone screen texting.IMO

I can’t believe how wrong this is.

Freshly dropped black walnuts make excellant throwing ammo at your kid brother.

The trick is not to get hit back.

No shīt. Walnuts absolutely belong in fudge and chocolate chip cookies.

Amen to that!

And banana bread.