That's Shucking Nuts
I made the kids go outside to play and have just enough time to tell you about a food source we have here on the land in the hypothetical event the grid goes down (or something). We have several black walnut trees and decided to harvest, shuck (shell? skin?), dry, and crack open some nutty goodness.
Side note: Before we did this, we watched a couple videos, and from our detailed YouTubery research, we discovered that once you crack open the hard, inner shell, you have access to the "nut meat." As a result, I have vowed to henceforth refer to walnuts as "nut meat" whenever possible.
Moving on.
Wait, just kidding.
Walnuts drop their NUT MEAT in green tennis ball-sized orbs on the ground during the fall. Once that happens, you have three options: Break an ankle on them while walking through your yard, harvest them off the ground to shell (shuck? skin? WHO KNOWS) for eating, OR trick your friends into picking them up so you don't have to, which is what my husband and his sister did growing up. I may or may not have fallen for their little scheme in the fall of 2002.
Back to walnuts and the accompanying nut meat. Here's what they look like when they fall out of the tree ontoyour head the roof the ground.
Once you toss them into a bucket (we used a wheelbarrow because it was handy), the next job is to get that outer green covering off. This is the relatively easy part but I can't tell you how it was done because I was not home when the skinning (shelling? shucking?) occurred.
After being de-greened, the hard-shelled walnuts need to be cleaned in a bucket of water. Rob has this paddle attachment that he hooked into his drill (I'm sure I'm describing this using ALL THE RIGHT TOOL WORDS) and basically mixed the shells up which helped get all the outer coverings and dirt from the hard inner shell. After that, it was time to dry them out for two weeks. We used a fishing net.
I'm going to be completely anti-climactic and let you know we haven't cracked the inner shells to get to the actual walnut yet. Life's been busy. Right now, our nuts are in a bucket (that's what she said) waiting for us to finish processing them. Once they're shelled, they can be stored in the freezer for up to a year or fresh for a couple months.
What's pretty industrious about walnuts is that not only can you eat the nut meat, you can also save the inner dark shell to make walnut stain. My mom used to do this back in her ol' basket weaving days (yes, I'm serious). My grandpa also once had the bright idea to fill a pothole in his gravel drive with walnuts. It rained, the hole filled with water, and my mother (cautious driver that she is) tore down the driveway, splashing walnut-stained water all up on the hood of her white car. To this day, nobody can come to an agreement about who was at fault in the situation.
Anyhow, the stain is very pretty and I envision making something really special from some old wood from our house and staining it with homemade walnut stain from our trees.
Side note: Before we did this, we watched a couple videos, and from our detailed YouTubery research, we discovered that once you crack open the hard, inner shell, you have access to the "nut meat." As a result, I have vowed to henceforth refer to walnuts as "nut meat" whenever possible.
Moving on.
Wait, just kidding.
Walnuts drop their NUT MEAT in green tennis ball-sized orbs on the ground during the fall. Once that happens, you have three options: Break an ankle on them while walking through your yard, harvest them off the ground to shell (shuck? skin? WHO KNOWS) for eating, OR trick your friends into picking them up so you don't have to, which is what my husband and his sister did growing up. I may or may not have fallen for their little scheme in the fall of 2002.
Back to walnuts and the accompanying nut meat. Here's what they look like when they fall out of the tree onto
 |
| Guess what's inside this thing? A rough, hard, black shell. |
Once you toss them into a bucket (we used a wheelbarrow because it was handy), the next job is to get that outer green covering off. This is the relatively easy part but I can't tell you how it was done because I was not home when the skinning (shelling? shucking?) occurred.
After being de-greened, the hard-shelled walnuts need to be cleaned in a bucket of water. Rob has this paddle attachment that he hooked into his drill (I'm sure I'm describing this using ALL THE RIGHT TOOL WORDS) and basically mixed the shells up which helped get all the outer coverings and dirt from the hard inner shell. After that, it was time to dry them out for two weeks. We used a fishing net.
 |
| Fun Fact: The walnuts you buy at the store are English walnuts. These are black walnuts. |
I'm going to be completely anti-climactic and let you know we haven't cracked the inner shells to get to the actual walnut yet. Life's been busy. Right now, our nuts are in a bucket (that's what she said) waiting for us to finish processing them. Once they're shelled, they can be stored in the freezer for up to a year or fresh for a couple months.
 |
| Guess what's inside these things? NUT MEAT |
What's pretty industrious about walnuts is that not only can you eat the nut meat, you can also save the inner dark shell to make walnut stain. My mom used to do this back in her ol' basket weaving days (yes, I'm serious). My grandpa also once had the bright idea to fill a pothole in his gravel drive with walnuts. It rained, the hole filled with water, and my mother (cautious driver that she is) tore down the driveway, splashing walnut-stained water all up on the hood of her white car. To this day, nobody can come to an agreement about who was at fault in the situation.
Anyhow, the stain is very pretty and I envision making something really special from some old wood from our house and staining it with homemade walnut stain from our trees.
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