Originally Posted By: zimmerstutzenOld timers stored the hulled black walnuts in a sack or basket and often hung them in the attic for a couple months.
I don't know whether a period of drying was necessary or not, but almost universally folks gave them at least a few weeks to "cure".
There's a special cantilever operated cracker for blacck walnusts sold in the Lancaster farmer. Some folks freeze them before craccking, claiming it helps the cracking proccess. My Dad would sit at his work bench and used his big vise to crack the hard shells. With the vise handle he could apply just enough pressure to crack them, but not smash them. I have 30 to 40 mature trees out in the pasture and I'll bet there are easily as many bushel nuts laying out there.
My Mom used to do that...she had an old Kiddie wading pool that she kept in the Attic... she used it to place the home made rootbeer bottles in to carbinate and also placed her black walnuts in to dry....
Some years passed with her doing this.. then 1 day a rucus started in the attic...seems the local Squirrel population found her stash and made themselves a hole in under the siding and was stealing her black walnuts....
THAT Ended her storeing those Black Walnuts in the Attic to dry... from then on, Dad always scooped them up after my brothers and I were done dehuling them to use the hules for dye on the traps.. he then placed them in a 50 pound onion bag and hung them in his wood shop to dry...
Didn't matter if the squirrels got in the wood shop..but he was having no more of them getting in the attic and creating entry and exit holes under the siding in the house!