I picked up about the same amount. When I husked them they had a lot of maggots on the shell. Is this normal? I planted about 20 and put the rest out for the squirrel to eat or plant.
Black What!
No Black Walnuts. Just went down to the lower part of my property and sat and husked enough to fill a 3 gal bucket. Then I spred them over on some old wicker furniture on the back porch(sshh dont tell the wife). Now what is next??? I was think about putting some in the Bar-B-Q grill and turning 1 burner on and spreading them out on the racks for an hour or so. Bad Idea or Good Idea??
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You have to hull them, wear rubber gloves unless you want to be accused of belonging to the Black Hand. I have never heard of anyone burning the hulls off.
One way to get the hulls off is to wear heavy boots and just step on them and roll them around a little with your feet, and the husks will come off.
I've heard of people driving over them with vehicles to get the hulls off too.
As John said, wear rubber gloves when handling them, because the stain is very hard to get off.
I've heard of people driving over them with vehicles to get the hulls off too.
As John said, wear rubber gloves when handling them, because the stain is very hard to get off.
I got the husks off...now what to do with them? Put them in an oven or dehydrator?
Yeah some of mine had small white maggots or a kind of worm in them too.Sqrlhntr said:I picked up about the same amount. When I husked them they had a lot of maggots on the shell. Is this normal? I planted about 20 and put the rest out for the squirrel to eat or plant.
No, No , you don't dehydrate nuts or roast them in the shell. You can put them in a safe place and use them as you want them of you can crack and pick them now. Putting them in a dry skillet and toast them a little shaking the pan to keep them from burning will bring out the taste or you can put them on a baking sheet ant roast them in the oven to bring out the flavor. Just don't burn them. Then put them in an air tight container and you have walnuts when you want them.
Thanks JohnS,
I knew I'd find someone here that could help me out. How long, about would you say, to put them in the oven for and what temp?
I knew I'd find someone here that could help me out. How long, about would you say, to put them in the oven for and what temp?
about 350 bit only until you start to smell them, you don't want to burn them. Shake the pan every once in a while to move them around. I prefer the stove top in a dry skillet because you are with them all the time and can constantly shake the pan.
Black Walnuts.....Now Thats Funny!!!!That gave me an Outdoor flashback!!!!!
As we all know black walnuts are great to boil your traps in to dye them prior to trapping season.. Years back when I started trapping I traveled all over the counties of SCPA....Picking Black Walnuts to use to dye my traps.. I placed them in large plastic garbage bags under the secluded pine trees in the backyard.. Did not want people to see big bags of what appeared to be garbage sitting out in the backyard....Now the day came for me to boil my traps...I went under the pine trees to retrieve black walnuts to boil my traps...Looked in the bags.....NOT ONE BLACK WALNUT to be found...The squirrels......They robbed me blind...
Um if you lay them in the back yard those same squirrels that stole my nuts will steal yours too.......
Now I buy Trap Dye instead of foraging...Let that to the squirrels.....
As we all know black walnuts are great to boil your traps in to dye them prior to trapping season.. Years back when I started trapping I traveled all over the counties of SCPA....Picking Black Walnuts to use to dye my traps.. I placed them in large plastic garbage bags under the secluded pine trees in the backyard.. Did not want people to see big bags of what appeared to be garbage sitting out in the backyard....Now the day came for me to boil my traps...I went under the pine trees to retrieve black walnuts to boil my traps...Looked in the bags.....NOT ONE BLACK WALNUT to be found...The squirrels......They robbed me blind...
Um if you lay them in the back yard those same squirrels that stole my nuts will steal yours too.......
Now I buy Trap Dye instead of foraging...Let that to the squirrels.....
Old 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.
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.
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!
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!
We put them in wooden boxes on the roof of my Grandfather's shed when I was a kid. That turned into my second trapping experience.
We also put out huge rat traps, and got several squirrels (who would rob US blind of we didn't).
Turned out we had wild edibles AND wild game during the walnut season, lol.
![]()
We also put out huge rat traps, and got several squirrels (who would rob US blind of we didn't).
Turned out we had wild edibles AND wild game during the walnut season, lol.
I run mine thru an old corn sheller to remove the hulls. Then stick them in onion sacks and hang them to dry behind the woodstove for a coupla weeks. I'm a patient man
I've seen folks put a bunch in a burlap bag (not a lot at one time) and lay them on blacktop and slowly drive back and forth over them. seemed to work well. Was told that you canlay them directly on conrete, lay a old canvas tarp over them and then drive over them.
Are these Black Walnuts or the more prolificate Butternut?
Lay a board down in the driveway. Set all or as many of your walnuts on the board. Put another board over the walnuts. Drive over that with your vehicle. Cracked nuts. Easy!
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