Walnuts! How to cure them.

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gas56
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Walnuts! How to cure them.

Post by gas56 »

Wild Black Walnut trees when found, can yield a lot of nuts for anyone to pick them, of course with the landowners permission.
Most of the times these harvest's go unpicked and unnoticed, but can be a fun outing to take the kids along if you know where one can be found.
Usually they fall off the tree with the green hull attached and can lay on the ground until the last ones fall off in a few weeks time and may even turn a yellowish brown.
The 1st thing about picking and handling Walnuts in the hull is that they can stain almost anything, so wearing rubber gloves while picking them or cleaning them is a good idea to use them
from getting stained hands that can last for weeks.
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When the hull turns yellow and brown that's when they can be taken off easily. make an indent in the hull with your thumb to see if it is soft enough. If it is still hard you won't make an indent.
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Using a utility blade cut around the whole hull.
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Pull the cut hull off each side.
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Now you have an uncleaned Walnut in the shell.
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Test the shell to see if the nut is good inside with a bucket of water. A good nut will sink to the bottom and a bad nut will float. If a nut was a bad one because of bugs or just a cracked hull & shell, this will help find them for the most part.
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Soak the shells overnight in a bucket of water so you can start the cleaning process to remove any black coating and fibers on the shells.
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A wire brush will work to remove any coating but may be a lot slower than a pressure washer if you don't have one.
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A pressure washer used on the shells in a plastic bucket or a plastic crate with holes to let the water drain works best to clean them.
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The shells should look very clean afterwards.
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Storing the nuts for 3 to 4 weeks in 3 layers will help prevent any mold to accumulate. You can even give the nuts a bleach bath with a mixture of 1 part bleach to 4 parts water for 5 minutes before Storing them.
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After about 3 weeks drying time test the walnuts to see if they're ready to eat. If they are,.. crack open a few and eat a big handful as a snack or even use them for cooking.
Use natures bounty around the country and enjoy whatever gets you outdoors to enjoy the fall season. Nuts ahoy!
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Last edited by gas56 on October 13th, 2017, 3:01 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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nachthexe
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Re: Walnuts! How to cure them.

Post by nachthexe »

Nice and interesting, ty.
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InstinctiveArcher
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Re: Walnuts! How to cure them.

Post by InstinctiveArcher »

Very interesting. I have spent many miserable hours picking up walnuts in the yard. Now at least I'll know what to do with them as opposed to throwing them out :)
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In hunting, impossible doesn't exist any more than a sure thing does. - Tom Miranda
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