we have several huge old walnut trees. Last year they just kind of fell off the trees and rotted on the ground. We had no idea what to do with them and still don't but this year we are determined to eat them!
FYI: they are in a green casing which seems to get black areas on it while still on the tree--don't know if that's supposed to happen. There were a few that seemed to burst their casing but the nutmeat is soggy.
do we shake them down? pick them? let them fall? and then what--remove the casings? dry them?
Looking forward to some good advice and walnuts this year!
-Sada Sat

http://www.extension.umn.edu/projects/yardandgarden/ygbriefs/h404blkwal.html

Are you sure you want the job?

On the other hand, the young, green walnuts picked in june are used to make nocino ^___^

Wear gloves unless you want to look like the black hand of fate.
Some of my fallen ones were still good this spring when I was cleaning up the garden.
Oops, must add that we all have English walnuts, not black walnuts and they are loads easier. Just get them off the ground, take off the green stuff and dry them out. Then keep them like walnuts from the store.

I just posted this information for another forum, so you're in luck!

Walnuts discolor when stored with husks attached and their flavor is ruined. Wear gloves when removing husks because dye from the husks stains. Remove husks by applying pressure to the nut's ends. Pound side to side with a hammer while wearing safety glasses. Husks also can be softened in a container of water, then peeled.

After hulling, rinse the nuts, preferably outdoors since nuts stain. Next, check for insect feeding by placing the nuts in water. Nuts without injury will sink.

Do not compost walnut husks. Juglone, a chemical released by walnut trees, is toxic to some vegetables and plants, such as tomatoes.

Curing--The nuts must be cured. This prepares them for storage and allows flavor to develop. Stack the clean, hulled nuts in layers two or three nuts deep. Place them in a cool, dry, well-ventilated area, out of direct sunlight for two weeks. When nuts are dry enough to store, kernels break with a sharp snap. If cured improperly, mold forms.

Storage--After curing, store unshelled nuts in a well-ventilated area at 60 degrees Fahrenheit or less. Cloth bags or wire baskets discourage mold. Keep the relative humidity fairly high, about 70 percent.

To shell nuts, soak them in hot water for 24 hours. Drain and soak again for two more hours. Cover the nuts with moist cloths until you're ready to crack the shells. Bake nuts at 215 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 minutes. If stored at room temperature, use within a few weeks. Shelled nuts can be refrigerated up to nine months. They can be frozen for up to two years.

This is great--thank you for the detail. I feel like I can actually have a hope of eating some of the walnuts from our trees this year.
-Sada Sat

I followed along with these wonderful instructions until I got to the last paragraph. Does baking the nuts make it easier to hull them? I harvested a nice sized bin of walnuts myself. We were quite a sight. Pio on a ladder with a long stick. I down below scrambling to pick up the ones he knocked down! Yes, a few hit me right on the head and bounced. They blend right in with the grass and dirt under the tree, should have spread a white tarp on the ground. Fun though. Now, tomorrow, the work of getting them ready to cure. Thanks for the instructions!

I talked to my neighbor, a retired forest ranger, and he hadn't heard about the roasting bit. He puts his walnuts in a shallow basket and leaves them in the sun during the day for many days, which oprobably does the same thing, which I suspect is kill any little animalini that might be after them. I will do it when they are all down, except my trees are too tall to reach the tops with my hoe.
We tried the floating thing and they all floated, so we opened some. Some were bad, most were good, so I don't know that that's a good test, unlkess it is meant to be before the green hull starts to go black-- then they sink.

Most of my already hulled walnuts floated too, and the ones we tried tasted fine. The wisdom around here also says to leave them in the sun, at least for a while, first to dry off, then, we'll see. Off to the cantina no doubt for storage. They do not dry them out in the oven.

Hi there,

I just checked back on this link and noticed that there were some questions.

I got this information from a blog that I found about walnuts from someone who has an orchard. I haven't had the chance to try the floating thing yet, so I guess looking for the bad nuts is still the way to go.

Sorry guys. The rest of the blog information seems ok, right?

PS. I think the oven part is just to toast, not to cure.

AFAIK I have never had a walnut toasted inside the shell. I figured it took the place of having them sit endlessly in the sun, which thank goodness we are currently getting. Anyway, I don't think toasting would happen in 15 minutes at a low temp like that.
They do taste sorta green wight off the tree.

Hello again,

I don't think that the toasting is done until the walnuts are peeled and cured. I realize that this last bit of information is confusing.

I think she just posted additional things. For example, the soaking and peeling method that was written at the end would obviously be used before peeling.

I'm new, bear with me. I should have really checked this out better before posting it. I do think the information about peeling, curing and
storing is still good information.

A fellow gardener,
Dee

Call me stupid, as I still don't understand about the walnut thing. I have always bought downtown, and never even saw a fresh walnut until recently. Now a neighbor who has 3 trees has given me picking rights. I don't even know where to begin. I don't know the difference between husk, hull, casings, etc. I don't know what these terms mean. Would someone be so kind as to simplify this for me? I am at the stage of just looking at these ugly black/green nasty things on the ground. What, where and when do I do what I am suppose to? I feel completely out of my element here. Help! Please.

Okay, from the tree or the ground, pick up the walnuts, most of which will still be encased in a semi-hard green/black casing. This is removed first. The outer covering should peel off pretty easily, and if not, just wait a few days.

Then the walunts need to be cracked to remove the shell. The shell is quite hard and can't be removed without a nutcracker or a hammer!

Once the shells are cracked you'll need a pick to carefully removed the 'meat' of the nut from the inner parts of the shell. Hopefully you'll recognize the actual nut once you see it. Also, those inner parts can be quite bitter, so work carefully to remove them!

It's a time consuming process, but something you can do a little at a time on the long winter nights!

First off, do wear gloves or your hands will be black.

ooo...what a good thread...I have HUGE walnut trees in my backyard (in the US) and TONS of walnuts all over the place...but never really knew what to do with them! (my son has taken a hammer to them...but we didn't know how or how long to cure before eating,etc. or even if they CAN be eaten!)

so...what time of year do you collect them?? (they seem to start falling in Summer and continue through the fall) are they ok from the ground? (becasue my trees are HUGE and there would be no laddar that could get up that high)

when you talk about getting the "meat" out, I assume that actual nuts...like you would find in a bag for baking?? bit what about keeping them in the shells (like you'd buy in a bag of unshelled nuts?) you can cure them like that, right? just the meaty, green part need to be removed?

Okay, I got the walnuts picked up and put in gunny sacks, burlap bags to the rest of the world. Here in California we call them gunny sacks. Anyway, I don't understand the curing part at all. I thought if I picked them up, rubbed that yucky stuff off, placed them in the bag, they would be fine. Now I understand they have to be "cured"! What is that all about? Do I just hang the sacks from the rafters, or do I wash, then hand dry them first? I am beginning to wonder if any of this is worth all the work. I have gotten tired of paying $5 a bag for 10 ounces of walnuts, ready to go. Will these be ready for Christmas baking, or should I wait until next year? I'm sorry I am so dense, and confused, but I sure am! If feel so over whelmed, and out of place in this new world of walnuts. I started bagging them 2 weeks ago, are those no longer any good, since I didn't cure them first? Thanks for any replies. Einjk

I've never cured my walnuts either. I have placed unshelled walnuts in the freezer until I have time to crack them, and I've also put the (freshly) shelled walnuts into the freezer, taking out a few cups at a time for storage in the frig. Wonder how much difference (f any) there would be if I cured them first?

Some of you might find this article interesting:

http://lifeandhealth.guardian.co.uk/foodanddrink/hughfe...y/0,,2198983,00.html

What I did this year was to wash the casing goo off then rack dry them in a furnace. This made it easier to crack the casing without getting goo bits on the meat. And the meat was also dry and slightly toasted from the drying. Easier to get the meat out too. Now that I have eaten too many walnuts, I am wishing they had been almonds!

My dad made a tall, round "basket" out of chicken wire and puts the walnuts in it without the green shell on them. He has it sitting outside. But these are black walnut trees. I don't care for the taste of them.

The black yucky stuff is what they use for walnut wood stain.