Gardening
Related: About this forumblack walnut help please
We have a couple walnut trees that came with our house. I assumed they were black walnuts. They were too young to have nuts when we moved in, and this is my first year trying to harvest them.
I tried storing a few (a dozen or so) inside in a basket to ripen a bit because they felt pretty hard. Those promptly turned black and molded. So I thought I'd try gathering fresh ones and smashing them open. That went okay, but I got to see the inside of a couple that I smashed too hard, and inside the hard shell, the nut is squishy soft even though it doesn't seem to have signs of rot. Also, the shell inside the husk is surprisingly white - like eggshell white. So are they not black walnuts?
Am I doing this wrong? Should I keep smashing husks off, and store the nuts-in-the-shell for a month or so to harden?
TalkingDog
(9,001 posts)They are going to turn black and gooey, but there should still be the hard nut in the middle.
Without pictures... including the leaves, it is hard to say. Look these over.
And this might explain some things:
http://www.nutgrowers.org/QA/hulling.htm
Google is your friend. This took me about 5 minutes.
Curmudgeoness
(18,219 posts)when I was a child, but I do remember it was so messy. Black walnuts will turn you and everything else black when they are cleaned, so wear gloves. Also, you clean them when they are black or getting black, so they were not rotten. That is how they got the name, I suppose. I do know that at some point, my parents and grandparents decided that they were not worth all the trouble to clean (and they were super frugal depression era folks). Maybe there is a better way than they used.
I don't know why your nuts are soft, but they should not be. Maybe they were not ready to harvest???
noamnety
(20,234 posts)That's where I was hoping for someone with some experience, because some websites say to let them sit in the husks til the husks get soft, others say to cut them out right away.
I have read not to pull them off the tree because you can damage the tree, so these were all ones picked from the ground, they just started dropping last week.
I wore gloves that were knit, but with the palms and fingers dipped in the thick rubbery goop. Somehow that shit got inside and indeed, several of my fingers are very dark brown now. Very elegant looking.
Curmudgeoness
(18,219 posts)that just about explains my experiences. Short and sweet and easy to understand.
The nuts should be hulled immediately after they have been harvested. If the hulls are allowed to remain on for any length of time, the juice in the hull will discolor the nut meats and make them strong tasting. The stain also discolors skin, clothing, concrete, and anything else that it touches. There are various ways and devices to hull walnuts -- a cement mixer, corn sheller, automobile wheel, and squirrel cage are possibilities. Hulls can also be removed by stomping the nuts under foot or pounding with a hammer. After hulling, thoroughly wash the nuts to remove hull debris and juices. Small quantities can be washed in a large bucket or tub. At this time, the good nuts can be sorted from the bad ones. Unfilled nuts float while filled nuts sink. (Rubber gloves should be worn when hulling and cleaning to prevent staining of the hands.)
http://www.ipm.iastate.edu/ipm/hortnews/1994/9-16-1994/bnut.html
It also had some things I didn't know, like that you can sort them by putting them in water. I remember that my folks always used a hammer.
Since your hands are stained so badly, I think you have your answer about whether you have black walnuts. Use plastic gloves, and I bet you still have a mess and stained hands. But since the article says that they usually ripen in September, I wonder if the ones falling from yours are just not ripe yet.
noamnety
(20,234 posts)There's definitely a discrepancy in the instructions that might be explained by early windfalls not being usable. I can't both hull them immediately, and wait for them to turn yellow and be dentable with my thumb.
I can't believe I have to start the school year with my hands stained. Kids are gonna think I just don't shower!
Maybe you can teach the kids to clean black walnuts, then they will know why your hands are "dirty". And as a benefit, you will have cleaned walnuts.