Uses for early hickory nuts?

I've been working on turning an old vacation property in Western North Carolina into a productive and healthy edible forest as well as a garden closer to the house.
We have a few hickory trees near the house and I am able to harvest the nuts very easily. In June/July the trees tend to drop non matured nuts and I've been wondering if anyone knows of a use for these. Possibly a mineral or nutrient extraction?
Would love to hear any ideas. I'm pretty new to the forum and really excited to be starting out on this project.

Thanks!

Hi Tom,

Welcome to Permies.

We've got a Pecan tree in our front yard.  I am still not clear on whether that's a hickory variety or just a close relative but we always assume the early drop are the insect damaged nuts.  If we clear these before the rest ripen we have a much higher percentage of good nuts gathered.  Don't know if that information is of any use to you.

pecans are definitely a hickory (Carya) species. very closely related to bitternut hickory, C. cordiformis.

i don’t know of a good use for underripe hickory nuts. curious if you know which species you have. i’ve made a weird version of nocino (liqueur made with underripe walnuts) with underripe mockernut hickory nuts, but it’s pretty intense and definitely not for everyone. casey makes a good point about getting rid of the early drops to make sure you get a better percentage of good nuts in the fall.

those early drops don’t have filled nuts, so their use for hog food, etc, isn’t very helpful.

I know a way to use them.

When we lived in the Piney Woods of East Texas there were a lot of nut trees.

A friend would gather the fallen nuts and give them as Christmas presents to use as wood for smoking.

I thought this was genius.

I use them in my big smoker. They impart a great flavor when smoking pork and fish.

Thanks for all of the ideas! Can't believe I didn't think about smoking with them, but I'll be collecting them from now on.