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dschwandt said:
Not exactly gardens, but wondering if any of you fellas mess with walnuts in the fall.
Letting them dry out while the temps are still decent
Anyone have a good recipe for a black walnut cake??
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I remember back in the '60s, my mom (RIP) & I would collect black walnuts from under a HUGE tree in an old cemetery back in Connecticut, 3 or 4 five gal. pails full. The hulls were still mostly green.
She used to let them sit with the pail covers on until the husks would kinda liquefy. Then we'd cover an empty pail with 1/2 " screen and pour the "juice" into that pail for my dad (RIP). He was a finish carpenter and would use it as stain.
Then we'd don a pair of elbow long rubber gloves and peel off what was left on the nuts., rinse, spread out and let dry. (Had to watch those squirrels though!)

Mom & I would crack em with a hammer on a cement block. I remember they were hard as rocks. She would use em in her banana bread, carrot cake and in cookies. Those black walnuts had such a strong and distinctive, but not over powering flavor, it just added to the whole fall / holidays New England experience. Fond memories.
 
jlord said:
I remember back in the '60s, my mom (RIP) & I would collect black walnuts from under a HUGE tree in an old cemetery back in Connecticut, 3 or 4 five gal. pails full. The hulls were still mostly green.
She used to let them sit with the pail covers on until the husks would kinda liquefy. Then we'd cover an empty pail with 1/2 " screen and pour the "juice" into that pail for my dad (RIP). He was a finish carpenter and would use it as stain.
Then we'd don a pair of elbow long rubber gloves and peel off what was left on the nuts., rinse, spread out and let dry. (Had to watch those squirrels though!)

Mom & I would crack em with a hammer on a cement block. I remember they were hard as rocks. She would use em in her banana bread, carrot cake and in cookies. Those black walnuts had such a strong and distinctive, but not over powering flavor, it just added to the whole fall / holidays New England experience. Fond memories.
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That's a pretty cool way your Dad would use that as stain, I'd never heard of that before.
 
gary noblit said:
David,Those appear to have husks still on.They are much easier to remove now.After removing husks I put 5 gal at a time in an old cement mixer,plus 5 gals water and let them run for about an hr.Does a great job of knocking everything loose,rinse and let dry..I made a cracker out of old mower trans gears. Great in any cookie mix..
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David,
My dad also harvested walnuts. He used an old hand crank corn sheller to remove the husks. It worked really well if you have one of those available.
 
There were a LOT of smaller nuts, hard husk and not soft to the touch this year that I discarded.
Most of which you could discern the shell of the nut through the shriveled husk, and others just shriveled, brown and rock hard.

I think I can rig up something to use in a vice to crack them using jaws with cupped holes similar to what you can see in various models found for sale.
 
david, here's my newest cobjob..gears from ?mower trans..used brgs from deck,a little imagination.I'm not an engineer but have friends who are,,These gears gave me a 2 1/4 ratio of leverage and works pretty good but boy do pieces fly,gotta make a cover..Used neighbors "grandpa's goody getter " (available online for 179.) that works good,couldn't talk myself into the price.sooo...a vice will work but leverage is the key these babies are hard
 

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Black walnuts are taking over here, sprout everywhere.
I planted a Butternut tree (white walnut) 15 years ago and it just produced first crop this year, husked them but haven't cracked any yet.
 
gary noblit said:
david, here's my newest cobjob..gears from ?mower trans..used brgs from deck,a little imagination.I'm not an engineer but have friends who are,,These gears gave me a 2 1/4 ratio of leverage and works pretty good but boy do pieces fly,gotta make a cover..Used neighbors "grandpa's goody getter " (available online for 179.) that works good,couldn't talk myself into the price.sooo...a vice will work but leverage is the key these babies are hard
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Kind of looks like a mini horizontal arbor press. Now that I have a decent shop, I've got a serious American made arbor press (5T). Now all I need are some black walnuts!
 
Jim, people don't chase them like they did yrs ago,they are labor intensive but right now you can find zillions along roadsides in Mich. It's only a couple thousand miles...I have all the hyd parts to make a mini press and seriously considering it but I'm afraid it will be too slow..Might be a fun project tho..Mine has about an 18 in handle on small gear shaft(axle from old mower)
 
Well guys...2hrs of cracking walnuts reminded me of why it's not really fun.My homemade cracker was not good on some tough ones and ended up using the vise.Most of those were turned twice before they broke small enough.Very few meats came out as 1/4s...enough for a big batch of cookies.A busy spot for winter project...
 
gary noblit said:
Jim, my gear drive works perfect on every other nut but it can't be exaggerated how tough black walnuts can be !! A lot of folks drive over them to get the husks off but the nut doesn't break...
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Just another reason to leave the ags w/weight or turf tires on the GT!!
Works for me!!
Let 'em dry a few days and the husks come off fairly easily by hand, a gloved hand that is!!
Been dumping the ones I pictured a few days ago on the driveway every nice morning and then shoveling them back in the wheel borrow before it gets dark and cools.
I missed the nut cracker yesterday, they had already sold it.
 
David, I'm going to try something..I just ordered an elec. actuator(12v) that is rated at 1000lb.Shouldn't take too much to frame it and add a rocker switch for fwd and rev...never give up..if it doesn't work out i"ll have another deck lift...
 
A change of subject: I am in central Mississippi. It is raining today. Since July 4 I have had 7/10''s inch of rain. It is death zone for plants and trees down here . I have 4 (and probably more) 40 year old pines dead. Cedar trees, Leyland Cypress, lawn grass. This my 74th summer and never before a drought like this.
 
David,It's who I am,had to solve the walnut cracking problem..pics are of a 12v actuator. It's mounted on a 3/8 plate then to a large ash board.This thing will crush walnuts beyond what we want so there will be a learning curve..However it does the job without effort..A spring loaded rocker switch makes it an easy task but the meats still need picking...I will share details with anyone that doesn't want to commercialize it...
 

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