Nut gathering season is the time of year when I become a professional squirrel, first scouting out my favorite nut trees to check on the year's potential harvest, then, finally, scrambling around on all fours gathering up as many nuts as I can before the squirrels get to them when they start to drop.
After processing, washing and drying/curing comes cracking and eating-a laborious task, but, if you've ever tasted a black walnut freshly pried from it's shell, you'll know the taste is a world of difference compared to other nuts, and even commercial black walnuts.
Commercial black walnuts are good, and I'm grateful that Hammons (the only commercial supplier I know of in North America) sells them, but, as all the nuts they sell are wild harvested by all sorts of people, there's some variation in quality if the nuts have been in contact with their hulls for an extended period of time.
Black walnuts you harvest yourself will taste the best, and are so rich in oil when freshly cracked it will come out in your hand if you squeeze them (sidenote, black walnut oil is also sold as a commercial product, but tastes like regular walnuts).
For a few years now I've been using the tried and true method of cracking black walnuts that Sam Thayer taught me, and it works well.
I crack the nuts with a hammer in a basalt mortar (molcajete) or on a large field stone in the backyard, using a metal snips to spot-treat tough portions to reveal the nut meats.
While it takes some patience, that method greatly improved the quality and size of my nuts, and dependably gives me whole ¼'s of black walnuts instead of crumbles, which are worth far more on the market (as much as 30$/lb from some boutique suppliers in Italy).
I was fine with my cracking method, but, during an interview with Jim Ruen for Farm Show Magazine earlier this year, he extolled the virtues of something called Grandpa's Goody Getter.
I wrote it off at first, having tried a number of black walnut crackers already, none of them living up to the tried and true cracking and snipping.
My curiosity was piqued though, so I looked up the Goody Getter online. After I watched the video with Basil Bacon demonstrating his invention, which was much more hefty and large than other, much smaller crackers made for black walnuts, I had to buy one, and, as you are probably figuring, it works, really well.
Fascinated by the machine, I called Basil for an interview so I could learn more about Grandpa's Goody Getter and how it came to be. Basil, speaking with the same endearing drawl you can see in his demo video (which you must watch!) led me through the process a bit. Long story short, after he retired in 2002, he needed something to keep him busy.
An avid tinkerer and self proclaimed "junkyard inventor" he said he'd made many inventions over the years, with Grandpa's Goody Getter apparently being the breakthrough and runaway success, in the scheme of things.
When I asked him why he made it, we touched briefly on necessity being the mother of invention, and I laughed out loud when he told me that instead of necessity, most useful things are born instead from laziness, and the mentality of "there has to be an easier way". There's some real truth in that.
Basil said he spent over 19 years working on the initial nutcracker prototype, constantly tinkering with it and trying to improve it along the way. After the prototype was made, it took another 8 years for them to figure out how to sell it, the business of which he's now passed onto his son who handles their website and social media.
As far as the machine itself, like most good inventions, Basil said that he took an existing design (a cam-based nut cracker that he said had been around since the 1700's) and tried to make some improvements.
Well, I've never used one of the older models, but I can tell you that Grandpa's Goodie Getter works better than any black walnut cracker I've used.
Butternuts Too!
The real genius of Grandpa's Goodie Getter is in it's versatility and ability to accommodate just about any size of nut, where most crackers have a static system meant to hold nuts of a similar size in place.
Grandpa's Goody Getter will clamp onto any sized black walnut, pecan, or, as I've learned, most butternuts-the most difficult nut I've ever attempted to crack. As Basil said to me "Butternuts are like a piece of butter in Grandpa's Goody Getter".
What thrilled me about the machine though, besides it's handsome size and weight (especially after being mounted to a 10 lb slab of black walnut by my Grandfather) were the results.
On about my fifth try cracking the last of my 2019 butternuts, I got nothing less than a whole, completely intact butternut. Not a whole half: a whole, complete butternut.
After years of frustration cracking butternuts and getting excited to get a whole half, I felt like I finally had a reason to harvest larger amounts of them. As Basil says in his demo video, it is absolutely possible to get an entire, intact black walnut using Grandpa's Goodie Getter.
A whole black walnut in it's entirety is a thing of beauty, a sort of holy grail for nutcrackers, and something I've never seen anyone do using any other method, ever. In time, it will be mine.
Black walnut white whales aside, I think the really great thing here, the nut at the center so to speak, is that Grandpa's Goody Getter is a dying breed of product: a machine born of curiosity, good old fashioned American ingenuity, creativity, and years of hard work.
These are the sort of products I will go out of my way to support, and, if you harvest black walnuts, I think you should too.
Yes, it's an expensive nutcracker at about 150$, but, when I count the number of hours I've saved already, and the money and labor I put into black walnut crackers that aren't good enough to clean up the shells leftover by my GGG, not to mention the quick responses and help trouble shooting Basil's son provides, I'd buy another in a heartbeat.
Did I mention the speed at which this thing cracks nuts too? It will basically turn your garage into an assembly line. See my video below for a demo.
To sweeten the deal, you can order the cracker directly from Grandpa's Goody Getter, instead of that soul-sucking, scourge of small businesses that is Amazon (it's cheaper there too).
Full disclosure: Grandpa's Goody Getter has not paid me or compensated me in any way, shape or form to share this with you. I bought a nutcracker at full price, and it's an investment I wouldn't think twice about shelling out for again. As the old saying goes: "buy nice, or buy twice".
Michelle
Oh hooray! I wish I'd scoured your blog last year. I spent a bit of time last autumn failing to find the nutcracker of my dreams. I really had my heart set on a Master Nutcracker, which is also as you described, an item of a dying breed built on ingenuity. But it seems either they are paused for the time being or the company is done. I don't know. I really had wanted to gather my walnuts this year - why waste a free source of food on my property? I tried hammering some in 2021 with nothing fancy, but all I did was stain my clothes and destroy some nuts (although I did get to taste them). I will have to give one of these crackers a go!
I'll also throw in - don't throw away your shells! I collect and save my walnut shells, that get left behind from the squirrels because they are awesome in a fire. Once they get going, they burn super hot. I like to throw them in the coals if I'm putting on a slightly damp piece of wood, as I find they help the wood to dry out faster. And they create this amazing rocket-like sound once they catch fire. It's pretty awesome!
Alan Bergo
Yes I save my shells for trapping squirrels.
Michelle
Well, almost 2 years later: I was gifted the Goody Getter later that year in 2023! I spent much of last autumn cracking nuts, and finished up late year’s batch this autumn. I candied some nuts with walnut/maple syrup, and they ended up at a cheese tasting that my neighbor was a part of. I still need to make him another batch. I also made a PawPaw ice cream and put the candies nuts on top, as well as made a Butter”pecan” (er, with walnuts!) - both were incredible. I’ve got this year’s walnuts curing in the garage now. One of my kids loves the walnuts, one thinks they’re just okay, and the last hates them. Ha! (Last comment - I promise! 😅)
Alan Bergo
Hey nice I'm so glad you got one.
Serena Terra
It's been an abundant year for black walnuts here in Wisconsin! This spring I put up several quarts of nocino, my first try at that, thanks to your recipe. I have made black walnut hull tincture for many years but never had heard of making this liqueur. Interestingly enough, several of the nocino spices, along with the hulls are considered by many to be anti parasitic herbs. Maybe the Italian grandparents knew how to have a good time staying healthy!
Now It's the time of year to collect fallen, mature black walnuts. I have been removing the hulls individually. What I am stuck on now though is how to clean the remaining pulp out of the grooves in the shells and dry them. I don't have a garage that's impenetrable to squirrels and chipmunks in which to dry them. I don't prefer them drying indoors with any pulp left on them because of all the mold that occurs as everything dries. Please could you tell how you do this and exactly what's meant by curing them too? I ended up tossing the hulled nuts into my freezer for the time being but that won't address the issue of hull material stuck in the shell crevices.
Thanks so much for all your great recipes and techniques! I bought your book of Flora but didn't read all the way through yet.I have tried my hand at cracking walnuts with a large mountable lever cracker I bought many years ago but have had a lot of trouble with it smashing the nut meats up. I plan to order the GGG one you demonstrated when I can.
Thank you again for making available all this information!
Michelle
Yeah! Dr. Hulda Clark has green walnut hull as a key component of her anti-parasite cleanse.
Billy Ó Súilleabháin
I use a drywall mud paddle - one that looks like this: https://www.amazon.com/Kraft-Tool-DC714-Shaft-36-Inch/dp/B0030LI42M - in a garbage bin full of nuts and water. Have at it for around 4 or 5 minutes and they will be around 85% clean. Pour them onto a rack, hose them down and back into the bin for round 2 after which they are basically clean and ready to dry. I processed around 1000 nuts in 2021 this way in around 2 hours.
Alan Bergo
Yep that works too.
Lynn O'Donnell
So where do you dump the walnut waste water ? And other 'toxic' parts from the processing procedures?
This Fall I gathered up my black walnuts for the first time after I read about their incredible nutritional value
Alan Bergo
Dump the water under a walnut tree or in a place you don't care about. Everyone's situation is different. I like to leave the shells out for the squirrels too, they make short work of it and the pile will disappear quickly.
Marygrace
I am not a chef is the best way to start. But, I want to eat better. 2019 I was diagnosed and fought cancer; that year is a blur. I don’t have family history (that I’m aware of) of cancer. So I blame the environment and processed foods. I’ve just heard of you on the today show this morning; so I started my google search. I found a lot of interesting eats. My neighbor has a black walnut tree which she throws out the nuts! Anyway, I need to start small and simple. I would love to read your blog, but can not find it. Is it possible to share the link. Thank you so much in advanced
Judy
I am a small time grower and forager for a 5 star restaurant nearby. I am 69, 5 feet tall, and have multiple sclerosis--I don't have a lot of upper extremity strength or precision of movement (no more hammers, please). I bought a Grandpa's Goody Getter several years ago and I can crack the toughest black walnut with one hand, and get mostly complete halves. Full disclosure, my method is to gently crack an entire bucket of nuts at the basement workbench, and then sit down in comfort upstairs with a pair of electricians nippers over a second bucket, and finish extracting the nut meats while listening to books on tape or a movie on the computer. I sell the walnuts by the pound and add a significant amount of money to my winter season income using the GGG. Although I use axle grease to lubricate it rather than oil. Also, mine came with an extra part just for cracking hickory nuts. Although I don't get as many hickory nuts as black walnuts (no adult hickory trees on my own property), my GGG works just as good for cracking the little hickory nuts as the walnuts. The key is that extra part with the longer extension that you have to change to suit the smaller nuts. I don't sell the hickory nuts; those I keep for myself! I've also planted 3 grafted black walnut cultivars and two hickory nut cultivars chosen just for the quality of their nuts, and in another 8 to 10 years I'll have those producing.
Alan Bergo
Judy, thanks so much for the info on hickory nuts, I'm going to pass it on to the others here who were asking about it.
Ellen Anderson
What about hickory nuts? I gave up harvesting them because they are so hard to crack?
Alan Bergo
On their website they mention hickory nuts, but, I've been trying to crack some C. laneyi and C. ovata, and, yeah, they're a bit too small IMO, I would consider this for black walnuts and butternuts, but not hickory.
Lissa Streeter
Excellent ! Like a Foley Fork, this sound like one of those unbeatable inventions !
Jacquie Aberegg
How does it work for hickory nuts? I have typically used a table vice (like Jacqui referenced. (Yes my name is also Jacquie but with an "e").
Alan Bergo
See my comment on hickories in the thread here. It's not as good for them IMO, stick to black walnuts and butternuts.
Dorothy Dobson
This looks promising. How long after harvest before the nuts are ready to crack and eat?
Alan Bergo
Depends on how quickly you can dry them. My first harvest is ready but I lay them on sheet trays with an air-blower pointed at them. Typically it's a couple months.
Jacqui
I agree that this is a thing of beauty and superb design. But a table vice works pretty well too.
Kim in MA
How does it do with hickory nuts? I can manage my black walnuts with the cracker I have (though grandpas sounds like a serious upgrade!) but I’m driven to frustration with the darn hickories and all those tiny crevasses!
Alan Bergo
Not as good for hickories IMO. Stick to black walnuts.
Kicki Masthem
thanks for a great article, a Grandpa's Goody Gettter cracker is long over due here! I usually put my nuts in the "not so small" stone drive way in a plasticbbag and run it over, again and again. It makes an awful mess but is quite succesful. Oh the things we do for good food!!
Alan Bergo
Thanks Kicki, TBH I'm chuckling at the thought of running over dried walnut shells. I don't share a lot of products, but the GGG has really changed my nutcracking game.