Sorry Black Walnuts?

I meant "Soggy", not "Sorry" *g*
I've been reading all over about how to "harvest and process" Black Walnuts. Most of the articles explain well what to do after the hulls are off, but I can't get there...The problem is that mine, as picked off the ground (they have been there less than 1 day) they are soggy. When I try to pry the "hulls" (the softish green part) loose, they are soaking wet inside, and don't come off cleanly. Is this right? Should I be letting them dry first? After? The pecans started to drop yesterday, so Nut Season seems to be upon me, and I want to take full advantage of it :)

Is there a "Nut Processing for Dummies"??

This message was edited Oct 12, 2008 9:28 AM

Here's what I do... pickem up and lay them out in the sun.. If you live somewhere , or have a place to pour them in a driveway , that's works good.. Driving over them helps to hull them..

So, Let's say you have them all laid out in the sun drying, the hulls will dry and turn black. That is when I pull the hulls off..

Do not do what I did though and drive over them in a 20,000 lb. skid loader.. I crushed some of them. That was easy picking for the squirrels.

Additional drying ( or curing )makes it easier to "pick" the walnuts away from the hull.. Although, I still crack with a hammer, there are some good crackers available. When I crack with a hammer I get it cracked and turn the nut and crack again.

edited to say, don't pour them in a pile to dry them, make sure they are in a single layer.. Probably didn't need to tell you that though..

kj

This message was edited Oct 12, 2008 11:11 AM

Thank you! I have a wonderful table that is black metal grid on my porch, I'll spread them there to dry. They;ll get sun about half the day if I place it right, but won't get rained on.

Appreciate your help :)

margo

Hulls should be black when you shell them. Never thought about driving a car over them. LOL..

I have picked up LOTS of walnuts in my life. I just dump them in the driveway and then about 2 weeks later (after a couple of rains) I pick them up and put them in buckets or boxes and store in the shed and get them out on winter evenings and crack them. In fact I hulled sev. yesterday by driving over them with my riding mower. You do not have to wait until they turn black. They hull just fine right now.
RED

We have more than 1 walnut tree and each tree has either different hulls or size of nuts it seems. The trees that have nice thick GREEN hulls work best. These kind dehull very easily by stepping on them as soon as they fall. They then need picked out of the hull and dried. I have washed some too. They need spread out in a dry place for a month to avoid any molding on the slivers of hull that remain.
Believe me, the above dehulling is very easy [30 minutes for hundreds] and far less messy than juicy brown hulls or driveway staining and moving.

This site by a black walnut supplier also has information about harvesting your local crops and some great recipes:

http://www.black-walnuts.com/

We picked up 4 bucketfuls of walnuts. I only pick up the black ones. I hull by hand with vinyl gloves inside cotton gloves. They get at least 4 rinsed to get rid of the strings and such. It's nicer to have nuts without the black coming off when you're trying to crack them. I spread them on old window screens on the screened in porch.

Edited for spelling

This message was edited Oct 23, 2008 4:47 AM

I am glad I found this thread. I've never dealt with black walnuts, but I've read all about them (I'm going to dye some fabric with the hulls/shells). I have been gifted with 4 bushels of them!

Is it necessary to cure them after hulling or can I eat a few?

They will be moist and rubbery, but good. They need to dry so they don't mold and crack easier after sitting all winter. We dry ours on old screens set up on bricks. This is a small batch. I usually have another screen full. I'm lucky to have a screened in porch or the squirrels would have had many of these .

DH used the wet black hulls to stain a plywood box that covers the air conditioner on the inside.