After the high winds of Saturday we decided to go and see if our local roadside stand of civic walnuts had shed any of their crop. There were plenty on the ground in various stages of degeneration.
They are good like this, with the outside husk decaying and the nut inside ripe for the taking. Many of them were still green, but the nut inside is easy to remove. We got 2 large bags full.
It took quite a while to shell them all, but the result is shown below. They are resting for a week or two on a mesh rack in the shed to cure. Then will come the great shelling session.
We'll rake them around every day to make sure the shells all dry out properly. When they are shelled, they can be frozen if need be. 
There was an American or Black walnut tree on the site. The husks are more rounded and have a soapy smell which isn't really very pleasant. The inside nut in our experience is almost impossible to crack. I left them there apart from a couple to photograph.
7 comments:
I never knew that walnuts came in two layers - the green bit, then the shell, then the nut. You have to like them a lot to make it worth the effort!
I'm not a fan - although my walnut experience is confined to eating them up about March when they'd been kicking round since Christmas...
I seem to remember you doing this last year - didn't you end up with horribly stained hands or am I terminally confused?
I see now why you too have had a busy day and am tired, but it's a nice sort of tired, isn't it?
Well, did you try to crack a Black Walnut? We did once - our steel nutcrackers fractured in two - yes the actual metal broke!
And another thing... why haven't the squirrels snaffled all the nuts then?! huh?!
Celia
There's a walnut orchard near us. . . I wonder if a trip out there might be worth the while. Thanks for the step-by-step.
We had a similar harvest 2 years ago - last year's was pathetic. Yes Bilbo, I did join the Black Hand Gang for 3 weeks till it wore off. The juice from the husks is yellow - false sense of security. It soon goes black on your skin. Armed with that knowledge we both wore rubber gloves.
We did try to crack a black walnut the year before last Celia. We never managed it - nut crackers, geological hammer, lump hammer - no good!
I'm not keen on walnuts on their own either Hazel - unless they are fresh. They are much creamier and very different. I like them in a date and walnut cake, with goats' cheese in a salad, and you can even mash up a decent sort of pesto sauce - again with the creamy new ones.
Go on Stefaneener, have a go!
Coffee and walnut cake ... yummy!!! How do I recognise a walnut tree? On second thoughts, I might just pop down to Sainsburys and save myself a bit of time :o)
I just love the idea of food for free in hedgerows and forests. There is something very primitively satisfying in foraging for food. Perhaps it brings out my inner cave-woman!
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