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  • From: Nicole <nbrown AT bbtel.com>
  • To: market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Market-farming] Re: Black Walnuts
  • Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2003 16:48:48 -0400

Before last winter, I had a rather large black walnut tree in my front yard (it had to be removed due to a number of considerations, not the least of which was the walnuts falling on our house and our heads!). I did a lot of picking up, shelling, and cracking of nuts in the last 4-5 years. I decided last year that if DH would make me a cracker, I could sell organic nutmeats for around $8-$9 a pound (the going rate at the Wholefoods store in Louisville, though I don't think theirs are organic). I'm still waiting on the cracker.

You can use a corn sheller to remove the green husks; I borrowed one and tried it, found it very labor intensive, and decided my old method worked better anyway: put several nuts on a piece of old carpet in the barn (hard dirt floor), put on my old boots, step and roll the husk off individually. You get pretty fast. Keep work area clean, and use oil-resistant gloves to pick up the nuts if you don't want stained fingers.

The nuts will need to be washed and left to dry for about 2 weeks before you shell them. I put them in milk crates to wash and dry. The green hulls may also have a market - they make fantastic dye or wood stain, and a tincture made from the hulls is reputed to expel worms among other things (liver tonic if I'm remembering correctly).

There are commercial black walnut shellers on the market, the two that I've seen are on this site:

http://www.redhillgeneralstore.com/nutcracker.htm?source=goadd

...as well as a walnut picker-upper (though they advertise it as being for pecans), a rolling cage on a stick. Seems like a great idea if you have a bad back, though last time I picked up walnuts I had a herniated disk, and found it best to just crawl on hands and knees. Small children are great at this, though more expensive. ;)

Oh wow, I just found this: http://www.marketfarming.net/blackwalnuts.asp
and I see I've already replied to this thread, must've been last year! Good, I don't have to type it all out again. www.blackwalnuts.com was a great site last year, but has changed into something completely different this year (bummer). One of the major nut companies (Diamond?) has a site somewhere that lists places you can take black walnuts fresh from the tree to sell; prices are best early in the season, and vary by location and with the quality of the nuts you bring.

Hope this helps!

Nicole in KY




  • [Market-farming] Re: Black Walnuts, Nicole, 07/15/2003

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