black walnut advice

[Guest snellma]

I was given 3 bags of black walnuts while I was home for hunting season.  It has been 30 years since I cleaned a walnut and need some advice.

 

When I am taking off the outer shell, how clean do I really need to get the nut part?  Do I really need to scrape off all that stuff or can some of it be left on there?

 

How long does it take for the actual nut to dry?  For the first day or two they were behind my wood burner and it was on so they got lots of good heat.  Now they are just sitting on the mantle with no wood burner heat (it has been in the 70's).

 

Thanks.

[Petee]

I remember lots of smashed fingers when I was a little girl.  Luckily I became allergic to nuts, so it wasn't a problem anymore! :-)

 

http://www.ochef.com/393.htm

http://web.ncf.ca/ag384/Walnut.htm

[Guest snellma]

Thanks.  About the only step I missed with the first bag was to wash them after husking them.  Don't think that is really going to hurt since the nut meat is on the inside.  I plan on drying all of them, cracking them, cleaning out the meat, and then freezing it.

[lavender]

We have tons of them as cracking them is my father-in-laws winter hobby. There must be a trick to it because he gets them out in large pieces. The rest of us aren't nearly that good. You have to be careful of the shells in with the nuts. They are almost indistinguishable from the nuts and are very hard on the teeth. I don't use the small stuff at the bottoms of the jars because that is where they tend to accumulate.

Try a black walnut pie. I did one last year for Christmas.

Oh, and the mimosa has finally put out a shoot. Thanks!

[Guest snellma]

We have tons of them as cracking them is my father-in-laws winter hobby. There must be a trick to it because he gets them out in large pieces. The rest of us aren't nearly that good. You have to be careful of the shells in with the nuts. They are almost indistinguishable from the nuts and are very hard on the teeth. I don't use the small stuff at the bottoms of the jars because that is where they tend to accumulate.

Try a black walnut pie. I did one last year for Christmas.

Oh, and the mimosa has finally put out a shoot. Thanks!

Maybe I could send mine to him and he could do them.  

 

Glad to hear the mimosa is growing.  I was a little worried about it.

[lavender]

He probably would. He is 92 and bored because there isn't much he can do anymore.

I think the mimosa will be fine. Haven't had time to do much in the greenhouse lately. Fortunately the plants get along pretty well without me at this time of year.