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    Home » Nuts and Starches

    Black Walnuts

    Published: Mar 24, 2020 Modified: Dec 5, 2024 Author: Alan Bergo

    Jump to Recipe Jump to Video

    Harvesting your own black walnuts is a labor of love gaining popularity with more and more foragers. This post will show you everything I've learned: harvesting, cleaning, storing, cracking, cooking, and everything in between.

    cracked black walnut showing perfect half

    Like a lot of other people, I have memories of tripping and stepping on ugly, gooey black walnuts in the yard when I was growing up. They were a serious pain when I had to mow the lawn, and I thought they were weird, not food--no way they could actually be related to regular nuts that we eat, right?

    Perfectly cracked black walnuts
    Want to learn how to crack perfect black walnut quarters? You're in the right place.

    As I worked my way through the culinary industry, black walnuts took on a new identity as a treasured, expensive product that was near impossible to source. When I was opening up my first restaurant, I looked at buying them from an exclusive purveyor and did a double take when I saw the price tag: over 40$ a lb.

    Black Walnut vs English Walnut

    Both walnuts are related and are in the Juglandaceae family. Black walnut trees are Juglans nigra and are common wild walnuts. and English walnut trees are Juglans regia-the same walnuts sold in grocery stores.

    a picture comparing black walnuts vs English walnuts

    The trees are slightly similar and both have opposite, pinnate leaves but the nuts are very different. The pictures below illustrate some differences between both trees.

    English walnut leaves on the tree.
    English walnut tree leaves.
    Ripe English walnut on the tree ready to pick.
    English walnuts will turn black on the tree when ripe.
    Black walnut tree leaves.
    Black walnut leaves.
    Black walnut tree leaves with green unripe nuts.
    Black walnuts on the tree, nearly ripe.

    English walnuts have very thin shells compared to black walnuts, and the flavor is very mild, where black walnuts have incredibly hard shells and a very strong, earthy flavor. If you like the flavor of both nuts they can be interchangeable in cooking.

    Where to Buy Black Walnuts

    Hammons is now the premier supplier of black walnuts in the United States, who sell them at industrial scale at an affordable price. When I need large amounts I order from them. They're also the only supplier that sells black walnut oil.

    Hammons nuts, while available in bulk, are mechanically separated, and they take a beating during the process in flavor and shape. Simply put: cracking black walnuts by hand is how you get the most intense flavored, perfect-looking nuts possible.

    Why would you harvest your own black walnuts with large scale purveyors in business, you ask? One word: quality.

    You'll be able to smell the bowl of nuts as you crack them, and pressing them between your fingers will yield a fresh, aromatic oil. You'll be able to see black walnuts as a luxury, and brag to your friends about your command of a lost art.

    Harvesting Black Walnuts

    There's plenty of methods and opinions out there, but after a couple years of harvesting, here's what I've found to be the easiest for me. Once the trees start to drop their nuts around early October, I wait a bit for the hulls to soften before I gather them.

    A black walnut showing discoloration of the hull meaning it's ready to harvest.
    Once the hulls start to discolor on the tree around October they can also be harvested directly from the tree.

    What happens here is that fly larvae will get into the thick green hulls, and begin feeding on them. After a bit, the hulls soften a little. From here, I go outside with a plastic tub, and, wearing gloves and using boots, I rub my heel over each nut, and the once hard green hull simply melts away.

    Harvesting black walnuts
    If you let them sit for a bit, the green hulls soften and are easily rolled off with the heel of your boot.

    Some nuts may need to be stomped a bit, and that's fine. What's happening here, is that I'm allowing the fly larvae (walnut maggots) to digest the hull, soften it, and in the process do a lot of the work of hulling them for me.

    Using larvae to help decompose green black walnut hulls
    They're hard to see, but they're there. The small fly larvae help digest the walnut hull, making it easier to remove. Yay, for maggots.

    If you harvest the walnuts green, with the hulls firm, you'll need to find a way to remove the hull yourself, and you can find plenty of ideas for how to do that online. My advice, is make your peace with creepy crawlies, and let them help remove the green hulls for you.

    Nuts can also vary drastically in size from tree to tree, so you'll also want to look around and find trees you like the best.

    Black walnuts inside the green hulls in a bowl showing the size variation between trees.
    Bigger isn't necessarily better, some small nuts have great flavor!

    Processing Black Walnuts  

    After removing the hull the nuts will still be covered in black goop and need to be washed. Fill a big Rubbermaid or plastic container with them, get the hose, and fill the tub with water.

    Dirty black walnuts, freshly harvested, ready to be washed
    Washing the dirty black hull from black walnuts
    Washed black walnuts ready to be dried and cured

    Using a stick or some other crude tool, swish the nuts around in the water to help loosen clinging bits of hull. Dump the water, then repeat the process a few times until the water runs clear.

    Discard any nuts that float, and do not leave the nuts in water for longer than it takes to wash them, or they can mold during the curing process.

    A tub of water filled with black walnuts showing a nut floating which should be discarded, known as the float test.
    Discard any nuts that float.

    Drying / Curing

    Once the nuts are drained they need to be cured/dried. Put the nuts in a wide container to dry in a cool place with ventilation--a porch or garage is fine but make sure squirrels can't get into them.

    Washed black walnuts ready to be dried
    Walnuts ready to dry.

    A net bag works, as will laying the nuts out on screens, or in a cardboard box as long as you have a fan or something to move air over them, as even a small amount of water in the bottom of a container can cause the nuts to mold.

    The most important thing is that your nuts are bone dry. There's a few ways to dry the nuts I'll go over below.

    Box Fan Method

    I like to use sheet trays and a fan in my garage, as illustrated below. It typically takes 2-3 weeks for my nuts to dry completely.

    Trays of black walnuts drying in a garage with a fan blowing on them.
    I lay the nuts on trays on a rack in my garage.
    Drying black walnuts on trays using a box fan.
    I point a powerful fan on the nuts to help them dry.

    Dehydrator

    You can also dry black walnuts in batches in a dehydrator, (use a large square model like Harvest Maid or Excaliber) and it is the fastest way to dry them.

    Drying black walnuts in a dehydrator.

    Putting them on cookie sheets in an oven with an adjustable temp around 150 could work too, but I would crack the door to avoid cooking them. Use this as a last resort.

    Allow the cleaned nuts to dry and cure for roughly 3 weeks or until they're completely dry. From here, the nuts are shelf stable, and can last for a few years, allowing you to crack and enjoy them as you like. 

    Storing dried black walnuts in a milk crate.
    Once the nuts are dried they're stored in a milk crate.

    Outsmarting the squirrels 

    It can be tempting to store the nuts outside after washing, especially if you don't have room to put the nuts on screens, but squirrels are talented nut thieves, and, if you leave the nuts out unattended for even a few days they will find your stash and help themselves.

    I learned the hard way when I picked and processed all the black walnuts I could find one year, left them in a box outside, only to find that over the course of a week, the single squirrel that runs around our yard had helped himself to over 2 gallons of nuts.

    Cracking 

    A picture showing the process of cracking black walnuts and removing the nuts from the shell.
    My old black walnut cracking set up.

    The most difficult part, and why I swore I would never crack my own black walnuts. One taste of a freshly cracked black walnut though and you'll be a believer.

    Black walnut shells are amazingly hard--much harder than English walnuts, and you won't be cracking these in a rocking chair with Grandpa for Christmas, rather, you and grandpa need to go to the garage and make a little nut cracking set up. Here's what you'll need.

    Workbench or other firm surface

    Cracking surface. I use a molacajete here, and I highly recommend it, since it's also the greatest spice grinder you'll ever meet.

    Using a molcajete and a snips to crack black walnuts.
    A molcajete and snips.

    Since they're made from basalt/volcanic rock, they're heavy and hard, and no amount of nut cracking or missed hammer blows will harm them. You can also use a vice.

    The secret to getting whole ¼'s: a metal snips

    Snips are indispensable and without them, even with a great hammer technique, you will never get the picture perfect nuts you see in my images. The snips are used to spot-treat problem shell parts, releasing the perfect quarters. See my video for a hands-on demo.

    A metal snips used to cut black walnut shells.
    A metal snips is essential.

    Nut pick, preferably homemade

    Conventional nut picks are obtuse, useless tools for black walnuts and other nuts like butternuts and shagbark hickory. They're just too thick, and all they're going to do is crush your precious nutmeats.

    A homemade nut pick for black walnuts
    a homemade nut pick

    The good part is, it's easy to make a homemade nutpick. Take a dowel, preferably made from birch so it won't split, and cut it into lengths a couple inches long. Pound a nail about halfway into the dowel. Next, pound the head of the nail flat using a hammer--this will be your "pick". Sam Thayer showed me his process of making these, and they're light years beyond conventional nutpicks.

    Fresh cracked black walnuts showing whole halves and quarters.
    Whole halves are possible.

    How to crack by hand

    Take each nut, and, holding them by the points or seams, give a good crack to the flat portion of the nut just until you hear it crack--don't smash them. Now rotate the nut and give them another crack on the seam (top or bottom).

    Cracking a black walnut by hand.
    Crack the nuts on the flat side, and then the seam.
    Using a metal snips to get black walnuts from the shell.
    Use the snips to free the nut meat.
    Removing fresh black walnuts from the shell.
    Ideally you'll get perfect ¼'s.

    With enough practice you should now have a cracked nut, with 4 whole quarters. Put the nuts in a bowl and continue until you have a large bowl of cracked nuts, then go though each of them, using the snips as needed to free the whole quarters.

    After cracking, rinse and dry the nuts to remove any tiny shell particles that can crack teeth.

    The best black walnut cracker/sheller 

    There's a few products on the market that make things easier, but one of them stands above the rest. The Grandpa's Goody Getter is by far the easiest, most efficient black walnut cracker I've ever used. It's an investment, but it's worth it.  

    Grandpa's Goody Getter, the best black walnut cracker
    The Goody Getter is the best cracker I've ever used.

    Cooking 

    To me, black walnuts are really the Rolls Royce of nuts, and there's nothing like a freshly cracked black walnut with it's unique scent and curious aroma. The flavor is incredibly strong, and keeps throughout cooking in whatever you make, bread and baked goods like cookies and cakes, or just sprinkled over granola or yogurt.

    Black walnut maple honey sauce recipe
    Black walnut maple honey is delicious.

    Since you just went through a lot of work to get all those perfect halves, I think it's good to leave them in large pieces, generally. One of the purest ways to enjoy black walnuts is to simply sprinkle them on things. Ice cream is pretty epic too.

    More Recipes with Black Walnuts

    Additional Information

    Do fresh nuts need to be toasted?

    Once the nuts are shelled, the perfume and aroma is at its peak and there's no need to toast the nuts, contrary to what I drilled into my line cooks for years.

    But, as nuts sit in on a shelf the flavor diminishes and, after a month or two, a gentle toasting will revive them a bit. I always toast nuts that've been stored or frozen.

    Rancid nuts

    Black walnuts are widely known for their tendency to go rancid stored at room temperature. How do you know if the nuts are rancid? If you eat it and it tastes terrible, like mold, it's rancid.

    Always store black walnuts in the fridge after cracking. For long-term storage, vacuum seal them and freeze.

    Yellow streaking

    Once I started cracking black walnuts from trees in Wisconsin, I noticed that some had yellow streaks. Terrified of the nuts being rancid, I threw plenty of them out. That was a mistake. Referring back to rancid nuts, if your black walnuts are rancid, you will definitely know.

    Fresh cracked black walnut showing yellow streaking.
    Nuts with yellow streaking are edible.

    As far as I can tell, the yellow streaking is a harmless anomaly (Sam Thayer said it might be related to temperature) but, if you know the science behind yellow streaking in black walnuts, let me know. Rest assured, I've eaten plenty of nuts with yellow streaks, and they're just as delicious as other black walnuts. 

    Uses for cracked nut shells and scrap 

    After you've cracked some black walnuts, you'll have plenty of shelled nuts, and probably a few with small pieces of nut meat left inside. I save all my nut cracking scrap in a box in the garage, then I make piles of the spent nuts on a rock in the backyard.

    Black walnut shells

    Every morning I get to witness the birds and squirrels who come to feast on the nuts left in the shells—it's a great way to share your harvest!

    Squirrel bait 

    We know squirrels love to steal black walnuts. If you like to eat squirrel occasionally as I do, know that spent black walnut hulls and shells make some of the best squirrel bait you can find. Put some spent nut shells in a trap and watch them come. 

    Green, unripe walnuts

    Green, unripe black walnuts
    Unripe, green black walnuts, at a stage you would harvest to make something like Italian nocino, or French Vin de Noix.

    Black walnuts, and other walnuts, give us a lot more than just nuts and oil. The green, meristematic nuts have long been used for making edible products and things from condiments to preserves and liquors.

    Green walnuts are outside the scope of this post, but I do harvest plenty of them, typically in June in Minnesota and Wisconsin. You want them about the size of a ping-pong ball, or sometimes smaller, depending on the recipe you're preparing.

    If a knife or pin can't be stuck through the young black walnut, it's too old, but can still be used to make nocino. Unripe black walnut leaves are also harvested to make different things, most notably black walnut bay sauce, a sort of vinegar infusion.

    Nocino or Black Walnut Liquor (1)
    Nocino, an Italian black walnut liquor, is well-known in the foraging and chef community.

    Butternuts: the white walnut or juglans cinerea

    Butternuts, or Juglans cinerea

    Butternuts are similar to black walnuts, but also very different, so different that I'll write about them in a separate post. For our purposes here, know that if you find some butternut trees, you're lucky, since they suffer from butternut canker, and they're numbers are dwindling.

    In Minnesota, they're listed as an endangered species. The flavor of the nuts is nothing like black walnuts. Butternuts are fresh, buttery, and without any sort of tannins like English walnuts. They're delicious, but more difficult to find than black walnuts.

    Harvesting black walnuts
    Print Recipe Pin Recipe
    5 from 29 votes

    How to Harvest and Store Black Walnuts

    A simple method for harvesting and storing black walnuts. Cured properly, the nuts will last for years.
    Curing/Drying Time14 days d
    Keyword: Black Walnuts
    Author: Alan Bergo

    Equipment

    • Large plastic tub
    • Boots
    • Gloves
    • Gunny sack or boxes for storing/drying

    Ingredients

    • Waterproof gloves
    • 5 gallon bucket or another container
    • Drying racks or milk crates

    Instructions

    Harvest the nuts

    • Harvest the nuts in late fall, using the heel of your boot to remove the green hull. Pick the nuts up with gloves as they stain.
    • For large batches, you can put the nuts in a 5 gallon bucket, cover them with water and stir with a paint or mortar mixer drill attachment to remove the hulls.

    Washing

    • Wash the nuts until the water runs clear

    Drying

    • When the nuts are clean, lay them out to dry, without putting them in a large pile, in a ventilated area. They'll dry up to twice as fast with a fan blowing on them. A garage works great.

    Storing

    • Once the nuts are dried, they can be stored for years for use as a food. You can test a walnut to see if it's done by cracking some, the nut meats should be loose in the shell. Freezing black walnuts after cracking.

    Video

    Notes

    Can you compost black walnut shells? 

    Black walnuts contain juglone: an alellopathic compound that inhibits the growth of other plants, meaning they should not be composted. Instead, leave the shells out for wildlife, throw them in the woods, or bring them to a yard refuse site. 
     
    « Black Walnut-Maple Sauce
    Smoked Rocky Mountain Oysters »

    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. ken deats

      November 28, 2022 at 3:46 pm

      5 stars
      We used to throw the brown walnut husks onto the driveway and when the car drove over them, it would leave the walnuts. We would dry and then crack them with a hammer onto a little anvil.

      Reply
      • Alan Bergo

        November 28, 2022 at 4:22 pm

        Hey Ken, yes, plenty of folks still use that method. Thanks for commenting.

        Reply
    2. Danny

      September 26, 2022 at 10:35 am

      I started collecting black walnuts last year and am getting some now. I start a fire in my fire pit, boil the them in water for 10 minutes. After they cool the shells come off easy, even the green ones. I then wash them and sun dry (away from squirrels because I have been robbed.) I’ve found that boiling them reduces the pungent flavor and have had people who do not like them, say they’re more tolerable. It works for me, because I spent most of my years despising them, and now I don’t. Maybe I’ve just acquired a taste fir them now. 😊

      Reply
      • Alan Bergo

        September 28, 2022 at 7:15 pm

        Hey if it works for you, that's great. Keep spreading the walnut love.

        Reply
    3. Corbin

      September 08, 2022 at 11:21 pm

      I took the advice of other sources before finding yours and attempted to dry some of my clean walnuts in the sun for a couple of days. I've noticed that most of not all of the shells now have cracks in them. Do you think I should avoid the sun or perhaps it was a combination of soaking too long in water and high temps from direct sunlight?

      Reply
      • Alan Bergo

        September 15, 2022 at 6:21 pm

        Soaking in water, from my experience can potentially ruin the finished nut. I have never had that happen before. I don't see anything wrong with sundrying them, just make sure the squirrels can't get to them.

        Reply
    4. Patton Bybee

      June 19, 2022 at 10:34 pm

      I live in Tennessee and love black walnuts. I bought a hand operated corn sheller and hull them green, works great. I also made a tumbler to get rid of dried hull. This really helps in cleaning walnuts.

      Reply
      • Alan Bergo

        June 20, 2022 at 7:18 am

        That's great Patton. I've heard of lots of different ways people have figured out to clean them.

        Reply
    5. Pete

      December 02, 2021 at 12:33 pm

      Too bad I didn't see your article til today. The squirrels devoured our whole bag!

      Reply
      • Alan Bergo

        December 03, 2021 at 9:34 am

        It's happened to me. They just love them.

        Reply
    6. Glen Isner

      November 25, 2021 at 11:05 am

      I've cracked a lot of nuts and experience has taught me that if you are picking little pieces out of shells you are wasting your time and degrading your product with shells. Take the larger pieces and discard the rest. It's quicker to crack another nut than to pick for a crumb.

      Reply
      • Alan Bergo

        November 25, 2021 at 11:19 am

        I agree. I get almost exclusively whole quarters now, especially since I started getting grandpas goodie getter.

        Reply
    7. John

      November 11, 2021 at 3:27 pm

      If you can't stick a pin through them then wouldn't they be too young, you wrote too old. Thanks! Got a box full of them and wanted to make sure I wasn't allowed to roast them to get the shell off. Glad I read this post.

      Reply
    8. j.c. brooke

      October 31, 2021 at 3:25 pm

      once the nuts are washed and dried, (still in the shell) can they be stored in below freezing temps through the winter? i live in northern michigan and do not have a heated pole barn.

      Reply
      • Alan Bergo

        November 03, 2021 at 11:02 am

        Hmmm, that's a good question. As nuts can be frozen just fine, and it actually works well for preserving the quality and oils of freshly cracked ones, I would assume so, but the devil in the details could be repeated thawing and freezing in the spring. I am speculating here as I always keep mine in a non-frozen place.

        Reply
    9. Chuck Walker

      October 22, 2021 at 4:57 pm

      Back in the 60's we collected about 1000 black walnuts each fall. Our method for processing was to spread the green nuts in a single layer on the basement floor and let them dry all the way to the nut, with the outer shell turning black and crispy. We turned them 2 or 3 times. At this point you could walk the husks off or hit them with a 1" steel pipe elbow on a short piece of straight pipe. To crack the nuts to get larger pieces we found it best to use a vice, turning the nut once - much greater control over the cracking process and easier to pick afterwards..

      Reply
      • Alan Bergo

        October 23, 2021 at 6:09 am

        When the hulls are allowed to decompose naturally, connected to the shells, it compromises some of the flavor. Hammons (the largest producer of black walnuts in the world (30 million pounds net last year) encourages all harvesters to harvest the nuts as soon as possible so they may be hulled to keep the best flavor.

        Reply
        • john

          November 11, 2021 at 3:29 pm

          I tell you what, I had plenty that weren't gone black, and I took to the green ones with a pairing knife and medical gloves until my hands went off. Can't imagine the machine they use to harvest the unblackened ones.

          Reply
    10. Steven

      October 22, 2021 at 1:34 pm

      Was just wondering a couple things.
      1 When you put the nuts in a bucket of water, some float, why, and also the meats can be different then other meats, are they fine to eat.
      2 Some of the meats inside the nuts will shrink and turn dark or black and taste different, are they safe to eat.

      Reply
      • Alan Bergo

        October 23, 2021 at 6:10 am

        Nuts that float are likely hollow or aborted-discard them. Overly shrunken or discolored nuts should not be consumed.

        Reply
    11. Lynda B

      October 22, 2021 at 11:48 am

      5 stars
      We have many old black walnut trees on our property. I have opened some perfectly formed and meaty black walnuts and found them to have no aroma and not much taste. Trees are over 50 yrs old. Any idea what that is about? Fresh off the tree a few weeks ago, little fruit fly larvae ate away the hulls, meat is the right texture, etc., but they are very large nuts. Can they grow too large and get a diluted flavor (like what can happen to some fruits)?

      Reply
      • Alan Bergo

        October 23, 2021 at 6:11 am

        I haven’t heard of that, thanks for commenting. There should be some variation between trees, but a lack of flavor in black walnuts would be new to me.

        Reply
    12. John Otto Stoll

      October 15, 2021 at 2:57 pm

      I have hundreds if not thousands of northern Michigan black walnuts. Does anyone want them?

      Reply
      • Alan Bergo

        October 16, 2021 at 5:47 am

        This is not a site for exchanging goods

        Reply
    13. JW

      October 14, 2021 at 1:49 pm

      I'm curing a large batch of black walnuts now, and there is a few with light white fuzz on part of the shell. (mold?) I read somewhere that this means I have to throw out the whole batch... Tell me this isn't so! The walnuts look fine otherwise, and seem to be drying well.

      Reply
      • Alan Bergo

        October 14, 2021 at 4:55 pm

        You don't have to throw out the whole batch, but it makes me think they didn't dry fast enough. If they taste foul after curing you will know.

        Reply
    14. David Britton

      July 10, 2021 at 11:27 am

      5 stars
      My Dad used a brace-and-bit to drill an exact diameter holes in a wooden board through which he would then drive harvested walnuts to knock off much of the husk. Then the shelled remainders air-dried very well for cracking. Tempting exposure in the garage for mice who love 'em as much as squirrels do, for a good number disappeared into the "secret stash" which I only discovered in late November's hunting season to be my nearby boots stuffed full. Rascals.

      Reply
    15. MikeR

      October 30, 2020 at 10:40 am

      After hulling, walnuts dried and kept in net bag for a few weeks. Now when I shell them, at least half of them have dried out meat in them. Did I do something wrong? Used power washer in garbage can to wash off the hull debris. I had removed the floaters, then dried them out on floor with a fan for a day or so.

      Reply
      • Alan Bergo

        October 30, 2020 at 11:01 am

        Hey Mike. From what I know, you didn't do anything wrong. For whatever reason the nuts didn't form correctly, the tree rejected them, etc. Sometimes I've had this happen with black walnuts that drop very early, which means that the tree rejected them or is having stress or some other issue. My advice is to move around to different trees and collect a mixture of nuts. Once you find a good tree, it will be a gold mine. Let me know how they work out for you.

        Reply
        • scott

          November 18, 2020 at 10:49 pm

          I experienced the same issue with the dehydrated any useless meat.With hundreds of nuts to crack I did a little experiment and did the float test on all of my remaining nuts. Only 100 out of 1000 sank. Of those 100 that I cracked open all had well developed meat ready to eat. So I did a little more cracking with the other 900 and only about one in 20-30 were any good. lesson learned. These were all off of two trees. I have to believe someone out there can tell us some detail about what is happening. Do they sit too long on the ground? I wonder if there is some optimal time to pick them up after they fall off the tree. First time in the black walnut harvest I need it to be more successful next year. thanks.

          Reply
          • Alan Bergo

            November 21, 2020 at 7:58 am

            Scott, I'm not an expert on tree rejection here, but that has to be part of the problem. Sometimes trees reject nuts for some reason, this year we had a cold snap in the spring that I suspect decimated the black walnut harvest. I was only able to gather about 100 pounds of them, when I should've been able to get far more. This year, my favorite tree did the same thing that happened to you, albeit in a smaller quantity since it wasn't masting (producing lots of nuts). I noticed the nuts fell a bit early on that tree, so the early drop has to be part of how you can root that out. It is frustrating. When I get a chance to ask one of my friends whose an expert about why the trees reject nuts I'll try and circle back here.

            Reply
            • Timothy

              October 19, 2021 at 12:31 am

              Most common cause of shriveled nut meat here in Kentucky is - in my experience - lack of sufficient water during nut formation... a dry spell. Best practice is to crack a handful of nut from a tree before spending time gathering from it; can save a lot of grief.

            • Alan Bergo

              October 20, 2021 at 1:17 pm

              Thanks Timothy

    16. roy roland

      October 03, 2020 at 3:44 pm

      5 stars
      when i picked them fresh off the ground i crack some from different location and most have yellow streak or spots in the meats this started last year but this isnt the normal color of black walnut meats you daid these are still good to eat is this still true

      Reply
      • Alan Bergo

        January 22, 2021 at 3:06 pm

        They're fine to eat yes.

        Reply
    17. NavyDave

      August 24, 2020 at 10:15 am

      The black walnut trees in my yard and and along the bike trail here in Bowie, Md have matured early so I have been taking zip lock bag fulls to Walter Reed to give to people who work at the appointment desks and NEX. I use and old school mini flathead screwdriver to open them but will use the nail and dowel for back up nut pickers.

      Reply
    18. TR

      June 24, 2020 at 7:26 pm

      I just somewhat reluctantly bought some black walnuts in bulk from the healthfood store. I had a memory that they tasted pretty strange but they were out of regular walnuts so thought I'd try. Well, I remembered quickly why I never buy them. They're extremely pungent/funky. I don't know how people can eat them. But this article made me think that maybe they're rancid? How would I know? They taste like they did the last time I tried and swore off them.
      Any indicators of whether they're just rancid or my taste buds just aren't designed to like them?
      Thanks.

      Reply
      • Alan Bergo

        June 24, 2020 at 9:44 pm

        If they're rancid, they will smell absolutely foul. My guess is that you just don't like black walnuts. Black walnuts are a delicacy, and, just like alot of other things that fall under the category, like caviar, matsutake, truffles, etc, some people won't like them, and some will pay good money for just a taste.

        Reply
    19. Julia McCabe

      June 19, 2020 at 4:16 pm

      I love black walnuts, and grew up with them. A year or so ago, I paid an exorbitant amount of money for black walnut pieces in a bulk bin at the organic grocery store. On a quest to make nocino, I found that several of my friends have black walnut trees that I can go gather from. I'm excited to make the nocino, and then go back in fall to get the mature ones to make ice cream, my favorite black walnut treat as a kid.

      Reply
    20. Bev Ward

      March 29, 2020 at 12:57 pm

      After extracting the 'meat'(kernel) from the shell of the Black Walnut, there is alot of debris(from the shell) mixed in with the precious 'meat'.
      Previously, visually. . .I carefully removed 3-5 small slivers of shell from about 1/2 cup of Black Walnut 'meat'.
      An old Cherokee trick is to place the 1/2 cup of Black Walnut 'meat' in a pot of warm water and the lighter 'meat' will rise to the surface while the heavier shell-slivers will sink. Works!
      True, the shell-slivers were accompanied by the huge pieces of 'meat'. However, that was fine since we are looking at 2-3 really-really large kernels. Using a strainer I can easily remove all the light 'meat'(kernels).

      Reply
      • Alan Bergo

        March 29, 2020 at 6:25 pm

        Thanks Bev, a good reminder. Sometimes I'll boil the shelled nuts to extract some stubborn meats out, typically I call it black walnut milk, and I use the liquid to cook wild rice afterwords.

        Reply
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