What To Do With Walnuts

When we moved into our house in March the first thing the next-door neighbors warned us about was the humongous tree in our back yard. It’s a walnut and it is so tall that it hangs over four of our neighbor’s yards. The very nice people next door offered to take the branches that had fallen out of it over the winter because walnut burns so nicely. We happily chucked the branches over the fence.

Then, dropping the first hint of what was to come, the nice neighbor said, “Good luck with that tree later this summer. Your yard will be like a circus for squirrels.”

“Why?” I innocently asked.

“Well, last year wasn’t a very good year for walnut trees. This year will probably be a doozy.”

Mr. Neighbor on the Right (I don’t know his name!) turns out to be a prophet!

This 60 foot high, probably 90 year old tree is so laden with walnuts that the branches are hanging so low it makes walking under it difficult. . .not to mention dangerous! The first of the squirrel squatters are moving in and taking up residence. They are beginning to make preparations for the harvest by digging hidey-holes in the brand new flower beds. I guess if it were up to them the entire yard would be planted with walnut trees!

It’s kind of exciting to see what’s going to happen with all these walnuts!


You think I'm kidding? This is one branch – ten walnuts in close up camera view!


I remember that my maternal grandparents had a walnut tree when I was a kid. I I helped my grandmother pick up the nuts and then we tried to take the hulls off. The hull is the greenish-yellow outside that covers the very hard shell that you have to crack to get to the actual nutmeat.

There are many methods to remove the hulls. . .none very easy and all very messy. (Familiar with black walnut stain?? It comes from the hulls!! And, no it does not wash off!) Here are a few ways to remove the hull:
1. Wearing a face mask and gloves, smash them with a hammer.
2. Put them in the driveway and run over them with the car for a few days. (This isn’t recommended if your neighbors’ windows are close to your driveway. . .I’m just saying.)
3. Use an antique, hand-crank corn sheller. (Yay! An excuse to go to the antique mall!)
4. Put the walnuts in a portable cement mixer with three parts walnuts, one part water, and a few handfuls of gravel. Run it until husks come off. (Anybody got one of these I can borrow?)
5. The craziest recommendation I came across was a guy who put 3 walnuts at a time in the garbage disposal and ran it for 20 seconds before reaching in to take the nuts out. He said to only do 50 or so at a time or you will burn your garbage disposal up. . .(not thinkin’ I’ll try that one.)
6. If you ever get them hulled, rinse the nuts off outside with a garden hose. They will also stain everything in sight.

Once they are hulled dump them into a five-gallon bucket full of water and stir. Change the water several times until it no longer looks like strong coffee. Good nuts will sink to the bottom. Floater nuts should be discarded – they are full of worms! Allow the freshly shelled walnuts to cure somewhere out of the sun for several weeks before beginning the actual work of cracking and eating them!

I know it sounds crazy but this is just the kind of nerdy thing I get excited about! Part pioneer, part adventure, part stubbornness! I won’t buy walnuts. . .but I will try getting some for free!

Based on the fifty-eleven thousand walnuts on my tree, anybody want some free walnuts in a month or so???