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Black walnuts

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buickmarti

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Little off subject. We have 9 black walnut trees in my yard and every year the squirrels get the nuts because I never do anything with them.
I have tread your can use them for dye, oil and even baking.
Does anybody process the black walnuts or are they more trouble then they are worth?
 
They are labor intesive, gather, hull, dry, pick, crack and pick. but are worth it especially for cakes and cookies. And yes the hulls can be used as a dye. I would suggest wearing rubber gloves when handling. Around here the picked nut meats sell for a good price per pound.
 
Walnuts are easy once you get a rhythm going. If you want to have fun, crack & pick enough hickory nuts for your Granny to make Christmas cakes, cookies, & candy.
 
They are tasty but have a much stronger flavor than English walnuts. Make a hole in a board, place the board over a pail and pound the nuts through the hole to remove the husk. As mentioned above, wear gloves to avoid black fingers. I tried making dye from boiled husks one year and the results on white cloth were much less than expected. Perhaps there is a better way.
 
As a kid on an Ohio farm in the 40’s black walnuts were gathered by the bushel and spread around the gravel driveway. After a week of being ran over we kids were tasked with gathering them for storage. Today as an amateur wood worker I pay premium monies for the wood to build or turn on a lathe. How would I love to have access to those dozens of trees on that farm. They’re were huge even then.
 
Black walnuts are very good for baking in anything where you use walnuts ,or just eat 'em. Oh ,, forgot to mention pour on maple syrup , put nuts in , and "oh yea". Processing is not hard. When they start to fall off the trees , gather them and lay them in the driveway. The car will mash the hulls off , and make them easy to clean. Next , once they dry slightly,crack them ina work bench vise. Easy peasy .......oldwood
 
Hull with a concrete mixer and about a half dozen limestone rocks as big as two fists, run about 30 minutes with a five gallon bucket of nuts. Dump and separate rocks and nuts. Whe you get five gallons or so of hulled nuts put them back in with the rocks and a couple gallons of water, run mixer for fifteen minutes, dump and rinse well. Dry on sun. Stores wellin sealed buckets thru the winter . Don't know any secrets to cracking and picking.
Does anybody need any powdered walnut hull? I have plenty.
Dave
 
As a kid on an Ohio farm in the 40’s black walnuts were gathered by the bushel and spread around the gravel driveway. After a week of being ran over we kids were tasked with gathering them for storage. Today as an amateur wood worker I pay premium monies for the wood to build or turn on a lathe. How would I love to have access to those dozens of trees on that farm. They’re were huge even then.

Yep. We gathered them by the sack full & put them in the ruts in the dirt/gravel drive. Then after a few days we gathered them back up to crack for winter baking.
 
Yep. We gathered them by the sack full & put them in the ruts in the dirt/gravel drive. Then after a few days we gathered them back up to crack for winter baking.
I can recall in our rural community with its two room school house kids who’s parents farm had walnut trees would come to school with hands stained an iodine color from handling walnut hills. LOL.
 
I can recall in our rural community with its two room school house kids who’s parents farm had walnut trees would come to school with hands stained an iodine color from handling walnut hills. LOL.

Yep. They'd stay brown for days or a week or more. And under yer nails would be black til they finally grew out enough to cut it all off.
 
As a kid on an Ohio farm in the 40’s black walnuts were gathered by the bushel and spread around the gravel driveway. After a week of being ran over we kids were tasked with gathering them for storage. Today as an amateur wood worker I pay premium monies for the wood to build or turn on a lathe. How would I love to have access to those dozens of trees on that farm. They’re were huge even then.
Thats how people around here did it too Whugett, except the driveways were cinders from their coal furnaces. Made short work of a fairly unpleasant task though.
Robby
 
. I tried making dye from boiled husks one year and the results on white cloth were much less than expected. Perhaps there is a better way.

Interesting. I've always found the dye quite potent. Fill a five gallon bucket about 1/3 full of the nut hulls, and place the hulls into an iron kettle with about 5 gallons of water, and boil. IF you don't have an iron kettle that will hold five gallons, use the plastic bucket and pour the boiling water in and let the hulls steep for about a day. You can make a darker, duller dye (they used the term "sadder") by adding iron oxide to the water in the plastic bucket. When done in the iron kettle the iron already is in the water but if the kettle is a tad rusty inside..., mores the better. The iron acts as a mordant.

LD
 
This brings back memories alright. One year I went to school with well stained hands. The Teacher sent me home with a note to wash before coming to school. My Mom was plenty angry to say the least. She carried me back up there and explained to the teacher she (my Mom) was not in the habit of sending her kid to school dirty and once I was there the Teacher better keep me all day everyday.
 
when I lived in Ky years back we'd put black walnuts with the green hull still on them in a gunny sack and run over them with the car to get the hulls off. Hulls off we'd crack them with a hammer. The black from the inner hull will get on your hands and clothing and stain them.
 
Walnuts are easy once you get a rhythm going. If you want to have fun, crack & pick enough hickory nuts for your Granny to make Christmas cakes, cookies, & candy.
Hickory nuts are harder than times were in the thirties. You can't even buy them in the stores because they haven't figured out how to get the meat out of them yet. LOL!
 
Little off subject. We have 9 black walnut trees in my yard and every year the squirrels get the nuts because I never do anything with them.
I have tread your can use them for dye, oil and even baking.
Does anybody process the black walnuts or are they more trouble then they are worth?
To make dye from the husk, its best to dry the husks for 3-6 months. Then place in glass jar with water. After3-4 days strain husks out. The stain is teady for use. Ive made stain from Butternut trees using this method. Also, do use rubber gloves. The nuts are hard to crack and get the meat out, but verygood. Relatives in Missouri had a vise on a table outside for cracking them. Have heard of the full nut put in A burlap bag and driven over to seperate husks. Also, a liquor, can be made from green nuts.
Little off subject. We have 9 black walnut trees in my yard and every year the squirrels get the nuts because I never do anything with them.
I have tread your can use them for dye, oil and even baking.
Does anybody process the black walnuts or are they more trouble then they are worth?
A liquor can be made with green black walnuts. Google Nocino. All other info good advice.
 
Does toasting the hulled nuts in the oven make them easier to crack like other nuts?
Christmas eve at my grandparents always had a big bowl of mixed nuts, that had been toasted in the oven, put on the table after dinner but before coffee and desert. The mix was bought raw, almonds, filberts, Brazil nuts (won't mention what great-grandma called them), pecans, and walnuts (I assume English.) Not sure how long grandma put them in the oven for. But, I tried cracking some before toasting, much tougher job, and not as tasty.
 
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