Black walnuts

[AnalogPackrat]

I have several native black walnut (juglans nigra) trees on my "new" property. Didn't notice any nuts last fall (our first fall here), but this year the trees produced. I picked up five and a half pecks (a bushel and peck plus) under one tree that might be 20 years old. This is the first batch (four pecks).


Unlike English walnuts, the husks don't split until they start to rot and blacken. So I husked them all by hand (knife) then cleaned off the remaining glop and fibrous stuff by agitating nuts in a bucket with rocks and water. I saved the first wash water for dye.

Very messy process, but ended up with 4 gallons of cleaned nuts. They'll need to dry for a few weeks before shelling.


I dyed two plain white t-shirts for 24 hours (cold, no mordant or prep) and ended up with a nice color.

 

[JohnRoberts]

Nice, my early pecan crop this year is looking slightly dehydrated but still sweet (it was a dry summer).

I am seeing a slight increase in output from one of the trees I pruned last winter. My trees were not properly pruned when young so late life pruning is not always productive (fingers crossed).

JR

 

[AnalogPackrat]

Nice, my early pecan crop this year is looking slightly dehydrated but still sweet (it was a dry summer).

I am seeing a slight increase in output from one of the trees I pruned last winter. My trees were not properly pruned when young so late life pruning is not always productive (fingers crossed).

JR

According to the local small commercial pecan grower nearby, nuts are only produced on new growth, so pruning can be beneficial if trees get leggy and tall. Sounds like you're on the right track.

 

[Gold]

I hope one day that one of the beech trees we have produces nuts. They are not grown commercially and I’ve never tasted one. Black walnuts are delicious. You beat the bears to them.

 

[AnalogPackrat]

I hope one day that one of the beech trees we have produces nuts. They are not grown commercially and I’ve never tasted one. Black walnuts are delicious. You beat the bears to them.

I've never had beech nuts, either. I was hoping to gather some shagbark hickory nuts, too, but either the squirrels beat me to them or the trees didn't produce any this year. No bears in my area, but plenty of squirrels, field mice, crows, and other competition!

 

[john12ax7]

Are black walnuts different from regular walnuts? What do they taste like?

 

[AnalogPackrat]

Juglans Nigra (black walnut) is native to the eastern US. AFAIK there's only one large commercial producer of black walnuts, Hammons. The reason for that is the difficulty in processing them. The shell is much thicker than Juglans Regia (English walnuts) and the nut meat is more convoluted in the shell, so cracking them while preserving quarters or halves is very hard to do.

What you get at the store or in your baked goods or trail mix is English walnuts. CA has significant commercial groves. Interestingly they are often grafted on black walnut rootstock. The shell is smoother on the exterior and the nut meat easily separates when the shell is cracked.

Black walnuts are sweeter than English walnuts. Different flavor profile. Both are high in omega-3 and other nutrients.

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https://black-walnuts.com/

 

[Gold]

Black Walnuts will grow in cold climates like climate zone 3. English Walnuts need warmer weather. I’d like to plant some because they will survive the Adirondacks.

Black cherries are also native to the US. They have a distinct flavor compared to bing cherries which are the most common commercial variety. Sour cherries are the largest commercial crop in Michigan.

 

[AnalogPackrat]

Black Walnuts will grow in cold climates like climate zone 3. English Walnuts need warmer weather. I’d like to plant some because they will survive the Adirondacks.

Black cherries are also native to the US. They have a distinct flavor compared to bing cherries which are the most common commercial variety. Sour cherries are the largest commercial crop in Michigan.

We have lots of black cherries, but birds and squirrels always clean them out. CA had very good bing cherries some years. We also have wild persimmon, paw paw, and blackberries around. Lots of competition for those as well.

 

[Gold]

We have lots of black cherries, but birds and squirrels always clean them out. CA had very good bing cherries some years. We also have wild persimmon, paw paw, and blackberries around. Lots of competition for those as well.

I’ve always wanted to try paw paw and wild persimmon. Some of the few fruits native to North America. I don’t think either are grown commercially. I’ve never seen them for sale.

 

[AnalogPackrat]

I’ve always wanted to try paw paw and wild persimmon. Some of the few fruits native to North America. I don’t think either are grown commercially. I’ve never seen them for sale.

We had a late frost this spring right as the paw paw were flowering. I've never tasted it, either. Maybe next year. Wild persimmon are (is?) good, but there's a narrow window between super astringent and rotting. Neither fruit would survive commercial handling/shipping and both have short shelf life. You might find some place that sells preserves or jam.

I wonder what American chestnuts taste(d) like.

 

[shabtek]

first year harvesting persimmons (half bushel) and (1 single) carpathian/english walnut here.
couple weeks ago I dumped several bushels of black walnuts in some timber miles away.
they de husk much easier when brown and soft, but there is no easy way to de-shell them.

 

[AnalogPackrat]

first year harvesting persimmons (half bushel) and (1 single) carpathian/english walnut here.
couple weeks ago I dumped several bushels of black walnuts in some timber miles away.
they de husk much easier when brown and soft, but there is no easy way to de-shell them.

Wild persimmons? What do you plan to do with them? I read in a couple of places that black walnuts taste better if the husk is removed before it turns black. I have no idea if that's true or not. Maybe I'll go pick up some that are black and keep them separate to compare after shelling.

I'm debating whether to splash out on one of these for shelling. Buy once, cry once?

https://www.grandpasgoodygetter.com/

 

[Rusan]

Juglans Nigra (black walnut) is native to the eastern US. AFAIK there's only one large commercial producer of black walnuts, Hammons. The reason for that is the difficulty in processing them. The shell is much thicker than Juglans Regia (English walnuts) and the nut meat is more convoluted in the shell, so cracking them while preserving quarters or halves is very hard to do.

We had both English and black walnut trees while I was growing up. I can vouch for the fact that black walnuts are NOT fun to shell and pick out, plus the husks will stain your hands. But, they're mighty tasty.

On a side note: if you have a creek or pond nearby, take care to dispose of your black walnut husks so that rainwater runoff will not carry any of the effluent water that has contacted them into said pond or creek. It is poisonous to fish and aquatic creatures.

Juglans Nigra (black walnut) is native to the eastern US. AFAIK there's only one large commercial producer of black walnuts, Hammons. The reason for that is the difficulty in processing them. The shell is much thicker than Juglans Regia (English walnuts) and the nut meat is more convoluted in the shell, so cracking them while preserving quarters or halves is very hard to do.

What you get at the store or in your baked goods or trail mix is English walnuts.

I buy big bags of walnuts from WalMart for snacking. Some time back, I was surprised when I got a bag that contained majority black walnuts. Never seen that before, not sure what was up.

I’ve always wanted to try paw paw and wild persimmon. Some of the few fruits native to North America. I don’t think either are grown commercially. I’ve never seen them for sale.

We have both here in Arkansas, and both are delicious. As AnalogPackrat noted, both have an extremely short shelf life, and a very narrow window of "ripe and sweet" between unripe/inedible and mushy/rotting. Unripe persimmons are particularly unpleasant, and will make your mouth draw up and turn your face inside out, like eating a spoonful of alum.

I was raised by my grandparents, who were born in 1911 and 1914 and raised in poverty on homesteads, so I knew every old way and old wives tale there was. In this area, the persimmons will usually ripen sometime around early November, and when the old timers picked them they'd cut open the seeds to predict what the soon-coming winter weather would be like.

On the topic of native U.S. fruits and nuts, hickory nuts and white oak acorns are quite tasty when roasted in the oven (a convection oven or air fryer is best). Toss them with vegetable oil in a ziploc bag to apply a thin oil coating, then roast and sprinkle with some fine popcorn salt.