Black walnuts

[45man]

I never seen so many. I have picked up a few million from my yard, also the woods is full of acorns and hickery. But almost no squirrels. It was so dry for a long time I think most moved closer to water.
I started a bucket of walnut stain since my can is almost empty.

 

[Thingamajiggy]

Yeah, walnuts dropping here like mad as well. Have seen some squirrels but do seem fewer in number then in past. Never made walnut stain but have seen it several times recently, may have to make a batch.

 

[CuNosecap]

Lots of squirrels around my place.
I wonder if squirrels can tell if your property has an HOA. I can't shoot them here, so maybe they know my HOA protects them.

 

[Rancocas]

I have a black walnut tree in my front yard down here in the mountains of east Tennessee. So far, I have filled five, five gallon buckets with walnuts. I can see plenty more nuts still up on the tree. Never had so many before! Sign of a bad winter coming???

I've never bothered with the nuts before, but this year I have read up a little about how to process and use the nut meats. It is a long and somewhat laborious process, but I intend to give it a try. Never made the stain, either, but since I have so many nuts I think I'll do that too.

I have to spread the nuts out to dry for a couple of weeks. Then, take the husk off. Throw the nuts in a tub of water. The ones that sink are rotten and are thrown out. Floaters are good. Wash them off to get rid of any husk still clinging to them. Put them in an oven at 350*F for about 15 minutes and the nuts should crack open. It should be fairly east then to pick out the nut meat. Or, so I have read. ():>)

 

[springfield art]

I never seen so many. I have picked up a few million from my yard, also the woods is full of acorns and hickery. But almost no squirrels. It was so dry for a long time I think most moved closer to water.
I started a bucket of walnut stain since my can is almost empty.

Had 'em in or near my yard forever. Glad to have gotten rid of the last one. Way too messy to mess with!

 

[45man]

The wife wants some because we love them on pumkin pie. I hulled a bucket full. She says they have to age and dry for a long time. We have a nut cracker I think is called a Rocket. It has a gear on top and will break the nuts.
I have filled the back of my Polaris 12 times already and just dump them at the edge of the yard. I don'r have one of those roll things to pick them up so I use a pooper scooper and put them in a bucket, I get 5 or 6 bigs ones in it at a time.

 

[Philip Chua]

This is an older topoic but I was researching different stains and black walnut hull came up. It has tannins in it and an organic compount called juglone. Its relatively insoluble in water but soluble in DMSO. I think I'll have to make some water/DMSO based stain with walnut hulls and compare that to plain water based stain. Now to poach some of the walnuts from the tree down the street....

 

[sheriff john]

Grand dad made a short wooden trough that was just a hair wider than the tire on his '49 Chevy car. Jacked up the car, placed trough around the tire and with the tire spinning, ran walnuts through. It shot the walnuts out hard enough to hit his wooden shed where the outer husks were mostly knocked off. Not a real complete description, but you get the idea. About 70 years ago, but I still remember watching Dad and Grand Dad messing with this.

Some say you can spread 'em out on a driveway and drive over them. Don't know about that one. I'd think it would stain the concrete ?

 

[45man]

Well, the stain did not work. I seen somewhere where the liquid has to be cooked.

 

[Buckskinquin]

I have a black walnut tree in my front yard down here in the mountains of east Tennessee. So far, I have filled five, five gallon buckets with walnuts. I can see plenty more nuts still up on the tree. Never had so many before! Sign of a bad winter coming???

I've never bothered with the nuts before, but this year I have read up a little about how to process and use the nut meats. It is a long and somewhat laborious process, but I intend to give it a try. Never made the stain, either, but since I have so many nuts I think I'll do that too.

I have to spread the nuts out to dry for a couple of weeks. Then, take the husk off. Throw the nuts in a tub of water. The ones that sink are rotten and are thrown out. Floaters are good. Wash them off to get rid of any husk still clinging to them. Put them in an oven at 350*F for about 15 minutes and the nuts should crack open. It should be fairly east then to pick out the nut meat. Or, so I have read. ():>)

I have made and used a water based stain. Thanks for the hint on sorting and easing harvesting the nut meat. Here’s a pic of my shooting box, made with tulip wood, stained with black walnut husks. I’ve read the tannin becomes better after drying for 6 months.

 

[Philip Chua]

Well, the stain did not work. I seen somewhere where the liquid has to be cooked.

We used them back when I was a kid to dye some t-shirts in cub scout camp. The result? A sickly yellow stain that looked like sweat stains. However - I think the concentration can be increased by a relatively smaller amount of liquid and addition of a polar solvent like DMSO or maybe even ethanol to mazimize extraction. Heat would improve solubility and time of contact would play a role im sure. We used sumac tops (those red things) and that gave all of us bright pink shirts. Prob could extract that and concentrate it and add to a walnut stain for an interesting color. Im prob gonna have to wait for fall to play with this stuff.

 

[oldwood]

Hillbilly coal miner solution to dirty hulling of black walnuts , is leave the green hull ones in the driveway to be hulled by car tires. We could always tell in grade school who did it the hard way by hand. They had badly stained hands for a long time. Once the nuts dry , a basement bench vise next to the coal furnace was a warm place to crack walnut shells , and remove the meats. It was a yearly event , if bakery products were to be made.