Black walnut harvesting

We have a single black walnut tree in our back yard. Its not very old, but has been producing some nuts now for several years.

My understanding is that the nuts should be picked as they fall to the ground late summer/early fall, hulls removed soon after for taste and them dehydrated for storage.

My problem is that maybe 1-5 nuts fall every day or so. So its not like i can just go pick all the walnuts and then process, its like a slow trickle every day. Can I let the hulls stay on until most of the nuts fall off the tree and then clean them all up at once? If the only downside is that they will taste a little stronger, I’m ok with that. I just dont want them to mold or rot.

they can stay in-hull for a while, certainly a week or two if not longer, without much change in flavor (though they dehull a lot cleaner with good green hulls) - but if you collect them in one place while waiting to process, keep them somewhere the squirrels can’t get to!

greg mosser wrote:they can stay in-hull for a while, certainly a week or two if not longer, without much change in flavor (though they dehull a lot cleaner with good green hulls) - but if you collect them in one place while waiting to process, keep them somewhere the squirrels can’t get to!

Whats a good way to dehull them? Ive read of people filling pillowcases or burlap sacks with them after the hulls are dark and running them over repeatedly. All I’ve ever done with small amounts is remove the hulls while green by just using a knife. Works fine but is tedious.

my usual for home/small-scale, is just stomping them out wearing boots, and then washing them in a bucket with water using a power drill with a cement-mixer attachment. that works better with a plug-in drill, it’s heavy work that seems to drain batteries fast.

We have poured them out in the tracks of our driveway and ran them over to remove them,no pillow case  just drive over them,some will break and only do this in a gravel driveway!This is important,concrete or blacktop will not give and you will crush them.

Always experiment with whatever you do,we had fine gravel with sunken in well worn tracks in our farm driveway,the walnuts couldn't shoot out sideways and we had plenty of walnuts to  pile in it.The more you have the more the weight is dispersed so not just a couple of nuts take the entire weight.
If you have large rocks and a completely flat drive you might need to use a pillowcase or old towel to contain them,they can go flying if you catch one on the edge of your tire.

my neighbor would gather sacks full every year and throw them out loose in gravel driveway to be run over with car to get hulls off. be aware once hull turns black that black used to be used by original Americans for tattoos and dye . its like a permanent ink and will stain your hands real good. just wear latex  or other gloves when handling.

greg mosser wrote:my usual for home/small-scale, is just stomping them out wearing boots, and then washing them in a bucket with water using a power drill with a cement-mixer attachment. that works better with a plug-in drill, it’s heavy work that seems to drain batteries fast.

Do you do that while the hulls are green or do you wait until they start to darken?

Shookeli Riggs wrote:We have poured them out in the tracks of our driveway and ran them over to remove them,no pillow case  just drive over them,some will break and only do this in a gravel driveway!This is important,concrete or blacktop will not give and you will crush them.

Always experiment with whatever you do,we had fine gravel with sunken in well worn tracks in our farm driveway,the walnuts couldn't shoot out sideways and we had plenty of walnuts to  pile in it.The more you have the more the weight is dispersed so not just a couple of nuts take the entire weight.
If you have large rocks and a completely flat drive you might need to use a pillowcase or old towel to contain them,they can go flying if you catch one on the edge of your tire.

Very helpful information! Sounds like that wont work well for us. Our driveway is blacktop and we dont have many nuts. Maybe a half a pillow case full by the end of the season but I’d be surprised if we even have that much

bruce Fine wrote:my neighbor would gather sacks full every year and throw them out loose in gravel driveway to be run over with car to get hulls off. be aware once hull turns black that black used to be used by original Americans for tattoos and dye . its like a permanent ink and will stain your hands real good. just wear latex  or other gloves when handling.

I wonder if the dye gets stronger as the hulls darken. Ive cut green hulls off of nuts bare handed and definitely got stained, but it faded away in a week or so and really wasnt bad. But I could see dark hulled nuts being way messier.

It is still early in the season.  If the tree has a good crop, the drop rate will pick up.  A good tree will drop some every few minutes.

Gray Henon wrote:It is still early in the season.  If the tree has a good crop, the drop rate will pick up.  A good tree will drop some every few minutes.

I hope you’re right! But this is a relatively young tree. Probably 50’ tall and maybe a little smaller than a dinner plate at the base. Its got more nuts than previous years but nothing compared to those gnarly huge old walnut trees I’ve seen elsewhere.

we've been harvesting fallen walnuts on a monthly basis for years, IMO, easier to remove the skin when skin is dried and black, so no problem other than beating the squirrels to the punch.  To remove the skin (err, dehull), I just roll them under my foot to get the majority of the dry skin off.  After we collect and , and remove the skin, the walnuts might sit in the shell for a year until we process by shelling, soaking in salt water, then roasting very low.  We've got a great hand-cranked shelling device that makes that work pretty easy, and noisy.

Gloves. gloves. gloves.
Squirrel-proof storage. Use a tight metal can. Those greedy M-F'ers chewed into everything else I had put them in. They just know the nuts are in there and they want them!
I found that when green, cutting the hull away with a pocket knife was efficient, and if they were firm prying it away from the nut worked to get big pieces off. Once brown this was messier.
I used my pressure washer on the hulled nuts held in a metal basket with holes just small enough to contain the nuts. The spray tumbled them around a bit, and a shake halfway through exposed the other sides mostly.
I've seen videos of folks using a cement mixer to tumble away the hulls, haven't tried this yet. but the walk away and come back later aspect could be nice if you had a lot to do.

calbo collier wrote:we've been harvesting fallen walnuts on a monthly basis for years, IMO, easier to remove the skin when skin is dried and black, so no problem other than beating the squirrels to the punch.  To remove the skin (err, dehull), I just roll them under my foot to get the majority of the dry skin off.  After we collect and , and remove the skin, the walnuts might sit in the shell for a year until we process by shelling, soaking in salt water, then roasting very low.  We've got a great hand-cranked shelling device that makes that work pretty easy, and noisy.

You just squish the darkened hulls off with your shoe and then store the nuts? I thought they were supposed to be scrubbed and sprayed clean after the hulls removed.

A lot of people use a board with a hole in it and a hammer to dehull.

Kenneth Elwell wrote:Gloves. gloves. gloves.
Squirrel-proof storage. Use a tight metal can. Those greedy M-F'ers chewed into everything else I had put them in. They just know the nuts are in there and they want them!
I found that when green, cutting the hull away with a pocket knife was efficient, and if they were firm prying it away from the nut worked to get big pieces off. Once brown this was messier.
I used my pressure washer on the hulled nuts held in a metal basket with holes just small enough to contain the nuts. The spray tumbled them around a bit, and a shake halfway through exposed the other sides mostly.
I've seen videos of folks using a cement mixer to tumble away the hulls, haven't tried this yet. but the walk away and come back later aspect could be nice if you had a lot to do.

Walnut recovery…

came across this excellent video on what to do with black walnuts. this guy knows what he is doing

that’s great. bill is one of my partners at the nuttery. i didn’t know he had done that one.

Jordan Holland wrote:A lot of people use a board with a hole in it and a hammer to dehull.

While the hulls are fresh and green or after they have turned dark?

Gray Henon wrote:
Squirrel-proof storage. Use a tight metal can. Those greedy M-F'ers chewed into everything else I had put them in. They just know the nuts are in there and they want them!


Walnut recovery…

Is that deep fried squirrel?

Brody Ekberg wrote:
You just squish the darkened hulls off with your shoe and then store the nuts? I thought they were supposed to be scrubbed and sprayed clean after the hulls removed.

That's right Brody.  Just an old sneaker and the pavement.  For me, the dryer the better, as there is less "ick to stick".  We only have seven trees, so I just rake them up, throw them into a carrier, move to the pavement and roll under foot.  Nuts in shells go into cool, safe storage the critters can't get to. As we only eat and share with friends, we don't need anything further.