Never attempted it but it seems like it's no small chore picking/shucking/curing/cracking/and cleaning those things? Is it worth it? I've got a decent crop from a few native trees on my hunting place so picked up a sack yesterday. Going to give it a whirl I guess. Any of you guys mess with them? Picked most of what was on the ground under three threes but a bunch (probably as much as we picked) still hanging in one tree. I suspect I just may find out why they are so expensive? Seems everybody has slightly different ideas how to but I guess this is the general painstacking process?
NRA Lifer "It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare." - Mark Twain "Everybody has principles... until they are an inconvenience." - Me
I'll tell you what you can do with them. Stick them in a burlap sack and run over them a few times with your truck. Then you can sink that sack in the water and all the fish near it will come floating to the surface which I'm sure is illegal.
I'll tell you what you can do with them. Stick them in a burlap sack and run over them a few times with your truck. Then you can sink that sack in the water and all the fish near it will come floating to the surface which I'm sure is illegal.
You think?
NRA Lifer "It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare." - Mark Twain "Everybody has principles... until they are an inconvenience." - Me
Walnuts are kind of like hickory nuts. They are awful good but you work like hell getting the goodies. Sure do make fine cakes though.
Slow but easy way to bust them without shattering them all over is to set a hydralic jack under something solid and crack them open that way. Then you can pick out the meat without having a bunch of little pieces scattered all over.
They make a hell of a mess if you let those hulls turn black. I'v heard of guys using the hulls to dye traps but never done it myself. I've eaten the black walnuts a couple times and they are just too bitter for my liking. You might like them though, who knows.
They say everything happens for a reason. For me that reason is usually because I've made some bad decisions that I need to pay for.
hehehe...ya, I suspect your gettin ready to find out why folks are so proud of em when you go to buy em!
My grandaddy used to put em down his gravel drive way to hull em out as they would normaly use the drive way. Then he would collect em up again. He would put em in 5 gallon buckets hanging in his cellar and crack em out as they needed em.
you better wear gloves if your gonna hull em by hand!
Good luck. Had a decent sized tree in the front pasture under a power line and the company came in and cut it flush to the ground. Now I have about a 5 trunk decent sized tree.
NRA Lifer "It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare." - Mark Twain "Everybody has principles... until they are an inconvenience." - Me
I have 2 black walnuts trees at my house in East Texas and I've never messed with them in bulk. Maybe pick up a few and do it and then get tired of it. Too many pecans around that you can knock out quickly.
If you ever get the chance to eat Black Walnut Pound cake, you'll understand why it's worth the effort.
They can be a bit bitter eaten by themselves, but they really shine in pastries!
Ed
"Not in an open forum, where truth has less value than opinions, where all opinions are equally welcome regardless of their origins, rationale, inanity, or truth, where opinions are neither of equal value nor decisive." Ken Howell
Had a huge black walnut tree on the lawn when I was growing up. I don't recall ever eating them much but during the green stage they would make an excellent substitute for a dirt clod. Also the dried nuts would make passable wrist-rocket ammo.
I could wish a lot of things on my worst enemy but neuropathy ain't one of them.
If you ever get the chance to eat Black Walnut Pound cake, you'll understand why it's worth the effort.
They can be a bit bitter eaten by themselves, but they really shine in pastries!
Ed
ain't that the truth...put em in a from scratch yellow pound cake with real butter and vanilla extract!...whoooweeeee
That's what I'm talking about!
BTW, Black Walnut leaves and hulls are quite toxic to horses. I had to cut down a small one on our place because of this.
Ed
"Not in an open forum, where truth has less value than opinions, where all opinions are equally welcome regardless of their origins, rationale, inanity, or truth, where opinions are neither of equal value nor decisive." Ken Howell
I wonder if the nut companies that sell the shelled meats do it mechanically or do they hire cheap labor, thus the high price for them?
Ed
"Not in an open forum, where truth has less value than opinions, where all opinions are equally welcome regardless of their origins, rationale, inanity, or truth, where opinions are neither of equal value nor decisive." Ken Howell
we;ve bought property specifically because it had a good amount of walnut standing on it, we had a 35ac stand of walnut that paid for an entire 80ac chunk of property for us.
Hell yes, it's worth it. Grandma couldn't make fudge candy without 'em, and life ain't worth living with that stuff. They are great as a topping on carrot cake, like my birthday cake yesterday, it was covered with 'em. Fantastic on/in banana bread, too.
Those that say they're too much work, are probably too lazy to drag a deer out of the woods, too, "too much work", or too lazy to fish, as cleaning them is "too much work".
You can roll a turd in peanuts, dip it in chocolate, and it still ain't no damn Baby Ruth.
BTW, Black Walnut leaves and hulls are quite toxic to horses. I had to cut down a small one on our place because of this.
Ed
I hope dad's mule and my aunts horses don't read this thread, the majority of the pen/pasture they're in is Walnut trees, has been forever.
Local guy uses an old corn sheller to pull the hulls off. Grandpa always just took them to a place that was set up to buy black walnuts and let them run them through their huller. If you were selling a pickup load they'd do it for free, or a few dollars if you just wanted yours hulled.
When I was 13, I picked up enough black walnuts to buy most of a new Walnut stocked 700 ADL in .270 at the local K-Mart, $300 plus tax. Thats a lot of Walnuts at $10/100 weight. Dad didn't charge me for the gas it took to take them to the huller or his labor to shovel them out of his truck.
oh yeah, forgot, I don't like the taste of them. A few just to chew on is enough to last me, don't like them in pies, cakes, or candies. When I was growing up everything grandma made had black walnuts in it.
I like pecans though. Pecan brittle is way better than peanut brittle.
