The last BLACK WALNUT processing video you'll ever need, ridiculously efficient method!

[@FeralForaging]

EDIT: Hey, everyone! More peple are finding this video which I'm really excited about. I wanted to mention that I was doing an experimental style here that I don't do any more in my videos. I'll probably try to recreate this one to be more concise. Check out my newer videos which are packed with way more info! Thank you all for being here and caring about black walnut. 🙏 Additional processing notes and ideas! One of my patreon members had a genius suggestion which is to just stack the various sizes of mesh filters on top of each other so you can sort them all in one go. Brilliant! Remember to use code feral24 at Grandpa’s Goody Getter to get $10 off your order of the best black walnut cracker in the world! I realized that I forgot to mention, after soaking your nuts, you want them to be dry on the exterior before cracking! For cracking, I have found that providing slight pressure along the two widest points of the black walnut shells allows the cracking to happen more uniformly, and the nut meat on the inside is damaged less frequently! The smaller pieces that you get from the 1/8-inch mesh can sometimes have a few shells sneak in there, so you have to be really diligent about removing them! These would work great for something like Forager Chef’s new black walnut milk recipe. You should check it out! I found that a deeper bowl works better when using the swirl method than a shallow one.

[@lessummers5738]

If I get my own walnuts shell them and wash them can I crack and eat them or do you let them dry for so long ?thanks

[@TAW64]

Watch putting black walnut in compost due to juglone which can harm some garden plants.

[@wjm1319]

@@TAW64 The shells should be ok. The husks should NOT be put in compost for that reason.

[@ContemplativeChaos]

Awesome channel. Thanks for the great info. I subscribed!

[@FeralForaging]

@@ContemplativeChaos thanks so much!

[@buckonono7996]

While we don't have any black walnut trees ourselves, we have friends who live very nearby who do. They and everyone on their street have loads of black walnut trees in their front yards and NO ONE does anything with the nuts! I have been told to come and get them all. 🤣 They all rake them to the curb to be collected with their leaves by the city. I know what I'll be doing this fall. 🙂

[@conseulasaint5269]

In our neighborhood in RI, the squirrels scurry all of them away, before we can get any😢

[@bettertvreceptionwithfoilf7100]

My Grandfather taught me to love black walnuts. He threw them in the driveway and drove his car over them until the shucks were off, and then he'd put them in bushel baskets and put them by the coal furnace in the basement to dry them out. When he worked for Michigan Dairy, years and years ago, he cooked down their first pan of condensed milk. He also invented two ice cream flavors. One was black walnut, and i don't remember the other one. Wish i'd have paid more attention to my Dad about it now.

[@anyascelticcreations]

What beautiful memories. Thank you for sharing. ❤

[@Maxim.Teleguz]

Can you ask them to give you a summary of his work?

[@bettertvreceptionwithfoilf7100]

@@Maxim.Teleguz I recently found his street address when he was living in East Lansing and it is now I believe a Biggby's coffee.

[@codyrebelcb]

"invented two ice cream flavors," That's just putting flavors together, wouldn't call that "inventing." Lol

[@bettertvreceptionwithfoilf7100]

@@codyrebelcb So, no one invented the PB & J? No one invented chocolate milk? No one invented any recipes at all? You logic is flawed.

[@seanrowemusic]

Love the water swirl separation technique! Great video man👌

[@FeralForaging]

Thank you!

[@kvs-adonai5214]

Great video! Your enthusiasm is contagious and delightful! Thanks for sharing.

[@FeralForaging]

Very welcome!

[@xmobile.]

Awesome! I just found your channel from a short suggested to me and subscribed. I love how thrilled and passionate you are about this.. i was too, learning your tricks! It's so good to learn to soak them before cracking, so they don't fly across the room, or explode into your hand. I just sat around cracking and eating hickory nuts for what seemed like an hour recently and knew there had to be a better way to do it all. When the nuts are fresh they're easy to get out, but when they dry a bit they want to stick in the shell. I learned that swirling technique on my own from separating seeds from pulp, but never thought to apply it to my cracked nuts! Thank youuuu!! I bought my father a GGG a couple of years back and we're still thrilled about it. My father loves the black walnuts and i love the hickory nuts. It used to take so long with a hammer! I still haven't learned the best method for turning nuts or how hard or not to crack them. Last season, we collected maybe 3000 black walnuts and several hundred hickory nuts (i also left huge piles behind for the squirrels.. all that's left now are the shells which I'll rake up for using in campfires). I lived in TX for a while and learned about pecan rollers to pick up nuts. I don't know if the east coast is aware of them yet (I grew up and live in PA). My father had never heard of them either until i told him. We bought a cheap basic nut roller and it picks up anything from acorn to black walnut (and golf balls). It's all really streamlined the process. Our property is so abundant in nut trees. Anyway, cannot wait to check out more of your content!

[@FeralForaging]

That's how I first came up with the swirl method also!! Great minds think alike lol

[@smilejesuslovesyoutoo]

To anyone who says u are wasting water they have no clue what they are talking about because it's not going down the drain to get processed. It's outside so not only is it watering the plants it's evaporating unto the air being carried into the clouds and essentially back onto plants and water sources. The only wasted water is captive water sent to processing plants to be ruined with chemicals. Ground water is naturally filtered and way better for u. Anyways just thought I'd put that out there. Thanks for the great video!

[@notmyworld44]

Here in northwest Arkansas black walnuts are super-abundant. If you are not familiar with this particular type of walnut, they have a strangely acrid odor and taste that requires getting accustomed to. Also the outer green husks contain a large amount of something that smells like iodine. The rock-hard inner shells can be ground to a powder and used as a polishing compound. There is a black walnut processing plant in Gravette Arkansas, not far from where I live that shells them. This video was really excellent with good information!

[@FeralForaging]

Glad you liked it!

[@aliannarodriguez1581]

With regard to the taste, I processed some black walnuts a few years ago and was horrified to discover they tasted like machine oil. It wasn’t just bad, it was toxic tasting. I tried several different nuts thinking I had gotten a bad one, but they were all the same. However, if I left a half eaten one out for the squirrels, they didn’t hesitate to gobble them down. So it’s me? Have other people had this experience? I really wanted to like them.

[@notmyworld44]

@@aliannarodriguez1581 There is information available about them that indicates the tree somewhat toxifies the soil so that you can't successfully cultivate a garden within a black walnut tree's dripline. There is a lot of hydrojuglone in the green husks of the nut, and it smells very much like tincture of iodine. You can smell it quite strongly. There's a good description in Wikipedia.

[@sog4646]

​@@aliannarodriguez1581I always thought they were bitter, but i didn't notice a toxic taste.

[@steffybael1245]

@@notmyworld44 put the green hulls in a toe sack (burlap bag) put a large rock inside the sack and tie off the top. take the sack with you when you are going fishing and throw it in the lake where you think the fish might be. the fish will float to the surface so you can scoop them up with your dip net!

[@ChrisSmith-vc7xs]

My friend, you've already used three gold panning classifiers in the process; I'd suggest just buying an average sized gold pan and use the water STRATIFICATION technique you are doing to do the finishing work (in gold panning just swirl shake with one or both hands). With the metals we are just going in reverse of you: washing out the light material to keep the heavy, and you're washing out to keep the light materials and consolidating the heavy. And in the long run you'll be using that gold pan to hold and gather tons of in the field goodies - I do. For those that have read up to this point I'd suggest the colors of the light green (like a sea foam), standard green, light blue, and standard blue colors so your eyes can can discern the features of the item you are classifying out. A black pan is great for gold bits and gemstone bits, but not good for looking at natural browns and tans of nuts, berries, mushrooms and plant bits. Pan types: Garrett, SAE, Sluice Fox, and the generic knock-offs are just fine, but look for the big riffles built into the pan to catch, in this case, nut meat. Most of the 5-gallon fitting classifiers will sit on top of a larger gold pan, and a fingers under the pan lip and thumb over the edge of the classifier wall will give a good grip to shake-classify out all the bits of each stage. There are a plethora of gold panning teachers out there in YT-University to teach panning techniques: Klesh & Dan Hurd to name two. There are mesh bags out there that will fit panning gear, or if you are in an extreme bush crafting mood you could follow Sally Pointer in one of her older videos and she can teach you to build a roman style mesh bag that can be custom fit to your gear load. Happy trails and much bounty to you. ....and one more thing (Jackie) [for those that catch the reference]: your suggested sifters and gold pans are great for hells, mineral, gardening, and pretty much any sort of activity that you go, "I need a way to sort these out and catch them while processing.

[@MsCindyh]

I bought that same nut cracker last fall, works fantastic! I cracked all my pecans with it also. I also twist the nut a little and crack partially again.

[@FeralForaging]

Yes, it's awesome! Works with hickory as well.

[@elijahsanders3547]

This was fantastic! Thank you. My Grandparents had a regular walnut tree growing next to the irrigation ditch out in the country, and my Great Grandma would take bags of them and crack them in her chair, use them in her apple pie (the apples of which they also grew on a gentle slope not far from the ditch :)

[@anyascelticcreations]

I've only gathered black walnuts once many years ago. I didn't know anything about processing them and made a terrible mess of the whole endeavor. By the way, did you know that the ink makes a really good dye? It does. Including skin. And everything else it touches. Lol. 😅 I will definitely be watching your video next year about how to deal with the first half of the processing. And then I'll come back and watch this one again. Thank you much for making so many wonderful videos for us! I appreciate you!

[@loiscutting1716]

I have been gathering black walnuts and hickory nuts for 60 yrs. I gather walnuts when they are just falling from the tree, I hit the shuck with a 16 oz. hammer, the shuck splits open, I pick the nut out with rubber gloves then lay them up to dry. Hickory nuts are extremely easy as they lose the shuck when falling off the tree, lay them up to dry then crack then nuts around Christmas.

[@zinckensteel]

Thank you so much! Black walnuts are such a common tree, yet almost universally ignored, or even reviled for hurting other trees.

[@robertwilliams-wd6cp]

I just saw my walnuts into 3 pieces with a Harbor Freight Scroll saw then pick the meats out with dental tools bought at a flea market. Then I take the center slabs of shell sand flat on a HF belt sander and make key fobs or thinner ear rings, paint or polyurethane. Gives this old codger something to do in my man cave in the winter while watching TV. Works on hickory nuts also.

[@DJ-DOESIT]

This helped a lot honestly, this season is going to be so much more easy now lol. Thank you! Keep doing what you're doing, loving the informational videos.

[@FeralForaging]

Great! That's what I'm hoping for. :D

[@kristamun8614]

If your really that worried about wasting water, put a bucket under the sieve. When you swirl and pour, the water will go in the bucket. Then pour that water into the bowl to swirl and pour again.

[@FeralForaging]

Great point!

[@adreabrooks11]

I came to the comments to make this exact suggestion. XD

[@kvs-adonai5214]

I was going to suggest the same thing...lol

[@surfcat2051]

Then use it to water your garden.

[@phillipsmith21]

Just be careful where you use the water when you dispose of it. Junglone will kill many plants.

[@SailBale007]

I have a black walnut tree on my property and I have never processed them before. I’ve used the nut tool to pick them up, but now I’m going to try process them after watching your vids! Thank you! Happy New Year!

[@AOSChrisMiller]

My old neighbor would jack up the rearend of hos truck about an inch or two above the ground and he would toss the green ones under the spinning wheel and they would fly out the other side at a high rate of speed. Catching them in a bucket. He would age his a year in the shell and Crack them as he wanted them

[@carolmason9386]

Thank you for saying he aged his a year. I thought my mom would age around that long. She wanted them to dry out. I have always used old shoes and a pair of gloves to receive the nut from the green. I step and twist the core comes right off. Even with gloves I get stained fingers.

[@marklam8548]

Older nuts will go rancid faster...😮

[@Arboreal_Fungi]

Wow! So many great tips here. Thank you!

[@FeralForaging]

Very welcome!

[@sissyozzy1450]

My Mama loved black walnut ice cream. It was her favorite always.

[@DGibsonxio]

I have a single scoop of black walnut I've cream at our local ice cream shop almost every Saturday.

[@ifferl8781]

Thank you for making a video about methods to crack black walnuts. I live in Oregon, usa which, has acorns and walnuts as a unused resource by most of the population even though these trees are everywhere. Ok. So basically I wanted to say thank but I also have a question: is there a method to forage inner bark from trees that is safer or safest for the trees? I will subscribe because I like the way you explain your reasoning and the small business you support. Thanks again.

[@jmhannnon]

I like your water method of separating the shells from the nut meat. Since it appears that the shells are slightly denser than the meat. I think it would be possible to make a salt solution where the shells would still sink but the meats actually float. It would be worth an experiment.

[@objective_psychology]

Your content is a real godsend. You are one of the few people really advancing the field of North American forage-ology so to speak, and doing so in an entertaining, well-researched and widely accessible way. I've read up on foraging before but I still learn something from your videos every time. Thank you again!

[@douglasclark9272]

Thank you…I have a black walnut tree on my property. I have harvested nuts, husked, and cleaned them. They have been drying for two years, waiting for me to purchase a hand press like the one you have. Thank for the tip on cracking and sorting. I am now subscribed to your channel. Looking forward to harvesting my lotus patch!! I didn’t know it was a edible plant!

[@mm-qd1ho]

This is tremendous! My mom and I used to do this by hand, with just a small hammer. She made Walnut Thin Christmas cookies every year. Absolutely the best! I found the old way of processing too tedious, but with a dozen large walnut trees still here, and your instructions, I will try this. I just have to figure out how to keep the red squirrels at bay after they help me harvest.

[@fayecorbett9768]

Wish I had seen your video before last winter when we were hand shelling 8 bushels by hand. We put them in water in the cement mixer for a few hours and it knocks all those green shells off. It gets to be a thick slurry eventually, so you have to change the water a few times. Thank you so much for the valuable and labor saving information.

[@bluegrasstransport5266]

Thank you so very much for this video, we just bought a home on 5 acres with a Huge black Walnut tree in the back yard. I love them but had no idea how to harvest them, well praise the Lord thank God for you. We are new subscribers. Just found you.

[@Umbrella2756]

Flush Cutter is the name of the shears you used for anyone looking for the same thing

[@xmobile.]

Thank you! We had one shipped with our grandpa's goodie getter a couple of years back (it was 30$ to order extras) and i keep seeing people use them in crafting videos but never knew what it was called to find them (likely cheaper) at a hardware store.

[@henryisnotafraid]

The way your concentrating the shells is good too for later you can process those further and grind them up and make them an abrasive to add to homemade soap

[@Jared1032]

Good information very helpful thank you. Just collected a lot of black walnuts off a job we did for my customer and I happen to like them and thought I’m going to pick some up because there’s like a few thousand laying on the ground and here I am now watching this video so thank you again good info.

[@allenelswick6961]

I have used a hammer many times and when out in the mountains in Eastern Kentucky cracking black walnuts. I find a good flat rock and another good size rock i can hold in the palm of my hand. I place and hold the black walnut on the big flat rock and the big rock in the palm of my hand i use to crack my walnuts and eat and enjoy.

[@karenbearden6198]

This is such a game changer! We have a huge very productive tree and never fool with trying to get any meat because it's such a pain. Can't wait to try this, in fact there are nuts on the ground right now. Thank you so much!

[@bobfanning6816]

Great video especially the "swirl" procedure. I purchased a “Walnut Saw” last fall and used it to open 300 lbs. or so black walnuts. I will never crack another black walnut. The Saw works great. It took me a few minutes to get the hang of using it, but full halves are pretty common. I use the “run over with a vehicle” approach to remove the outer husk, followed by a pressure washer. The Walnut Saw is a little expensive but not if you really like black walnuts!

[@withoutprejudice8301]

Have had a "Goodie Getter" for two years now. Excellent machine. Also pop for one of those "nut gatherers". They resemble a wire ball that you roll over the nuts on the ground. The wires spreading the nut goes inside. SO FAST. Beats my 62 year old back bending over picking them up.😊

[@artistmama1]

You should check the Native American ways of harvesting black walnuts. Their methods would be especially beneficial in processing the tinier nut meats. They boil the tiny bits of cracked nuts and put them through a sieve, which turns the walnut meat into nut milk, which is used in cooking and baking.

[@guillaumedep1]

I appreciate you sharing your technique. A couple of comments: First, you can compost the shells, but keep in mind that they contain a compound called juglone that is poisonous to lots of other plants. Second, you might experiment with changing the specific density of your water by adding salt. It won't hurt the nuts and you may be able to hit the sweet spot where the nut meats will float but the shells sink. Just a thought.

[@LittleFlowerLittleWay]

I didn't finish watching the video yet, but when you started doing the swirl method I kept thinking that it would be really easy to do in a kiddie pool using the hose to make it swirl... Then all you'd have to do is stick your net in and catch it that way! I would suspect you could get a lot more done a lot faster that way too ...We have been ignoring black walnuts on my in-laws property for years because it just looked like so much work to get them... I'm definitely interested in trying to harvest them now. Thank you for this!!

[@melissasmith7069]

Blast from the past, my Great Grandma use to do it this way. She would of loved that machine to crack them with, she just had us and hammers, lol my poor thumb remembers that part well 😆.

[@FeralForaging]

Love this! I hope future generations will continue to have stories of their family's gathering and processing black walnut. 🙏

[@robertwilliams-wd6cp]

A bench vice works too.

[@Rebecca-r7h]

​@@robertwilliams-wd6cpthats how my Dad cracked them!

[@mattedwards4533]

I watched the video but all I could think of was my mothers Black Walnut layer cake with her fabulous icing! I like the water trick!

[@FeralForaging]

Sounds delicious! Hopefully the method will help you have even more of it. :D

[@CS-mv3nw]

My mother had a great black walnut cake recipe.

[@mattedwards4533]

@@CS-mv3nw You can eat a lot of cakes and they seem to have something in common but not a Black Walnut cake it is all by its self in the taste catagory! I bet your mother is a great well rounded cook. Anyone that goes to the trouble to crack Black Walnuts and pick out the meat must know what they are doing in a kitchen!

[@cowdiologist2759]

Try salting the water to increase the density (specific gravity) to separate the meats from the shells. This is routinely done in the processing of peas to separate the mature (dense) peas from the sweeter peas that float on top.

[@terrykrall]

I started collecting black walnuts 2 years ago. We sold 90% of them to a Hammons collection ctr. We kept about a bushel and a half for us to crack and sort. The sorting technique you shared will be useful! We do it by hand and and takes about a day to separate a quart of nuts that way.

[@kristacalvino5660]

Oh how I wished I saw this 10 yrs ago when we had walnut trees on our property!!Black walnuts are AMAZING but the work and risk of breaking a tooth from the shells was enough to deter me. I hope I can find myself a friends/neighbors walnut tree to try this out. thank you!

[@Rebecca-r7h]

I have at least 40 trees on my property with the nuts going to waste since my Dad has passed! Come gather all you wish!

[@crystalclear5684]

Did anyone mention that the black walnut is super uniquely delicious?? Well worth the effort to wildcraft, or it can be found pre-shelled in some stores. I've always preferred the taste over the regular walnut, especially in salad dressings, with fruit (pears!) & cheese, ice cream, AND PASTRIES....soooo yummy! 💛

[@annetterohla8932]

If you are growing some of those weird country pears with the kind of sand papery skins that we have in the Blue Ridge foothills, they are really good if you simmer them peeled in a little butter with Harvey's Bristol Cream sherry , and maybe a little cinnamon ! I call them " Sherried pears " . They can be served over ice cream like Bannanas Foster or Cherries Jubilee or Peche Melba ! Or pancakes , which I haven't tried .

[@CriticalTechReviews]

This really puts things into perspective and makes me appreciate that a bag of normal walnuts at the store is

[@galedavis3198]

Seventy five years old, been eating these all my life. Get a good vise, sit down and enjoy being outside. What’s the hurry? Works great.

[@joeanon3888]

I have 6 acres here in KY and it's covered in huge black walnuts. The last 3 years I've gathered them in bulk but I've never been able to get them fully processed. Thanks so much for doing the heavy lifting to figure out a process. I'm going to use this process next fall on them and on my scaley bark hickories

[@kadlubowskim]

I like the experimental style. I can always do it wrong, but seeing corrections helps me out of the hole I dig myself in.

[@reneenorth2304]

MY mom used to make a black walnut cake . My dad would run the nuts through a band saw then mom would pick them out

[@StevenODell-ff4ux]

Years ago I adapted a carrot cake recipe by adding raisins, black walnuts and ground ginger. It was a huge hit.

[@goldfishgames]

I’ve had black walnuts in the freezer for years. Got them at Costco but didn’t use them. Just pulled them out and sure enough they’re from Hammons! Not the freshest flavor but still recognizable as wonderful black walnuts. I’m 65 years young 😉 my whole childhood my Mom would collect black walnuts then follow these steps- after collection they were put into an old huge copper storage container to dry out some. The metal type wasn’t important, just what she had on hand. They’d stay in the container on the garage floor as squirrels will most definitely raid all of your nuts. After a few weeks they were all black. She’d spread out a tarp, put on the heavier dishwashing gloves and with a meat grinder fitted onto a saw horse sit out in the drive feeding them through in order to remove the tar like husks. I don’t know how what type of auger or fitting she had which was small enough to let the nuts pass through. The sticky tar covered nuts went back in the metal container to dry out. When they were dry enough she or Dad would crack them open. I don’t know how but my guess is it involved a lot of swearing and wacking with a hammer and also crushing with a vise. One night the whole family sat for an evening to sort and pick the meat from the seemingly endless huge bowl of cracked shells. Everything you have demonstrated would have help us out and made our task far less labor intensive. Our reward was Slovakian potica. Just a taste of it as an adult years after she passed brought tears to my eyes, so good and such powerful memories.

[@brodrick3164]

When you are ready to store I recommend putting them in a vacuum sealer bag. Make sure they are evenly distributed and flat before vacuum sealing so the sealed bags stack easy. When vacuum sealed put in the freezer. I stand the bags on their side in sterilite containers that fit on my freezer shelves perfectly. I do admit that I use store bought bulk English walnuts as I am storing for mom and that is what she prefers.

[@robertpeters41]

Something that may help your process of separation by swirling the water in a bowl, go to a gold prospecting equipment site and look for a "Blue Bowl", it swirls water and separates gold from black sand just like you separate shells from meats.

[@andyloebrown8250]

Awesome info! I have 10 bushels washed & dried from last year. Bought Grandpa's Goodie Getter during the pandemic. Going to get busy cracking this winter.

[@Hamza-B3]

The sieve and swirl reminds me so much of gold panning, i reckon if you filled them in a gold pan and panned it, you could mass separate the meat and shells quicker

[@johnpattison1]

What if you dissolved something (salt, sugar, soda, etc..) into the water just until the density changes so the walnut meat floats, but the shells still sink. You might not need very much, as it looks like the meat almost floats in straight water anyway, and the solute (salt, sugar, etc.) might help with preservation or seasoning! Or you could always rinse them clean afterwards if you used something like bicarbonate.

[@FeralForaging]

I had this in mind, but didn't get a chance to test yet. As I was in the final stages of publishing the video I actually saw someone seemingly do this successfully. I will have to test myself! Would be a great alternative.

[@midwestribeye7820]

​@@FeralForaging Let us know what you find out please.😊

[@steveb2976]

I was thinking he was going to add salt to separate them but then he started swirling. I would be interested to know how well it works.

[@mahna_mahna]

One thing I'd keep in mind when thinking of using salt is that freshwater salinization is a form of pollution. Once you put salt into water, it's energy intensive to get it back out again. We have that issue with things like road salt in states with a lot of snow and ice. If there's something other than salt that doesn't pollute the water, that's great. But since this method seems to still work great without the salt, I'd prefer to just spend a tiny bit more elbow grease than put more salt into the ecosystem.

[@eyesofthecervino3366]

@mahna_mahna Would sugar be alright?

[@lynnbry1556]

I wonder if you slightly salted the water at the swirl step if that would make the nut meats float even better, due to denser water, then leave lightly salted or wash afterward to remove the salt. Thanks for the video!

[@FatOldGuyPlaysGuitar]

True. Adding salt will make the water more dense and the nutmeats will not be so ready to sink & will increase their propensity to float to the surface. All shell material will still sink to the bottom. Use a mesh strainer to skim off the nutmeat, rinse, & dry. Nothing worse than making a quick bread for yourself or friends and biting down on a piece of missed shell. Makes one's teeth a little angry. Just sayin' . . .

[@natureboy6410]

Just allow your small bits to naturally and fully dry. This can even be done on a tray in the refrigerator. Once dry, the oils in the meat will still cause it to sink, but the fully dry Woody shells will easily float. Black walnuts are my absolute favorite nut! I like to pan roast the small bits and add it to homemade Maple ice cream, Maple black walnut ice cream again my favorite! 🤤🤤🤤

[@Rebecca-r7h]

My Dad's favorite. He added his shelled black walnuts to his nightly bowl of ice cream, preferably maple.

[@bjglesener]

A couple ideas, 1) try using a gold pan during the Swirl process, 2) have you tried drying before you put back into water to swirl. The nutmeat has a lot of fat in it which should be less dense than the shells. I'd be interested to hear if an interim dry allows for better separation in water.

[@slanteyedandsideways]

The husk of the black walnut has many antiseptic properties and can be made into a tincture to treat minor cuts, scrapes and wounds as well. Nature is bountiful in what it provides.

[@libbyholt3863]

Please make one more video showing healthy recipes and ways to cook with them. I recall black walnut cake with chocolate chips as a kid, but these days I prefer to avoid flour and sugar. Also, surely there are some savory ways to enjoy them.

[@KMx108]

My new property is covered with black walnut trees. This is exactly what I need!!!

[@stephenanderle5422]

You have a different variety than I have!

[@e.duncan6256]

Thank you! I have so many walnut trees that to me they are a pest. I tried to gather some a year ago but didn’t know what I was doing. Now I know how to harvest them and I won’t have to buy them. Looking forward to more foraging videos!

[@FeralForaging]

Glad I could help!

[@sueyoung2115]

You may find a great new venture in the farmer's market!

[@mschele64]

Great info! I’ve used hulls to make ink and tinctures, but have never had the time or patience to harvest the meats. I got a jump on the squirrels this week (we have very healthy, very happy, very large squirrels!) and gathered a 5 gallon bucket full and time permitting, will gather a few more buckets. Can’t wait to get started. I’ll be using the driveway technique but look forward to seeing how you hull yours.

[@lucasdog1]

In the soaking process, we put the nuts in a cement mixer with the water. Let them tumble for an hour or so, drain and add clean water. let them soak for the remainder of time. It really cleans off the shells.

[@lumberjack7923]

I would never go thru the effort BUT I LOVE YOUR DETAIL !!!!! THIS IS HOW YOU MAKE A "" HOW TO VIDEO "" GREAT JOB !!!!!

[@phillipsmith21]

I bought a 1 ton Arbor press from Harbor Freight for $79 that works great to crack nuts and has a hundred other uses. We process hundreds of pounds of black walnuts every year and I repurpose my honey extractor to swirl the larger pieces and scoop the meat out with the sieve.

[@tomiossi8092]

Great video. Thank you. Mom drove the car over them and had black hands for weeks. But boy her walnut chocolate chips cookies were a hit in the neighborhood. Good memory

[@chetmyers7041]

18:15 You could probably use some fine sieves to filter the water for recycling during the same day.

[@hughfryer3813]

One thought for sorting the meat from the shell. Food grade glycerol is fairly dense. If you made a 50% mix, or higher, of glycerol with water, the meat is likely to float and the shells sink. You can skim the meat and pour off the glycerol for use with another batch. I haven’t processed black walnuts, so I wouldn’t know, but it could be worth a shot.

[@reccocon3442]

Tip: As a health note any broken meat: 1/2, 1/4 etc. nut should be either eaten or made into the recipe asap broke fractured nuts start to oxidize and turn rancid if kept out turning stale. Keep in air tight sealed bags/ containers. Additionally the taste will be affected. Best is kept airtight then freeze asap. Imao

[@cheryllewis-battles7664]

Nicely done

[@spencertruman4424]

I put black walnuts in a bench vice. It works awesome.

[@Garysopinion]

Nice pace. The best dessert I remember is walnut chiffon pie. And you do not need a lot of black walnuts due to the strong flavor. Also any crushed walnut saved in pure maple syrup goes good over vanilla ice cream.

[@jessehunter362]

this is really similar to gold panning in a lot of ways. Sieves and density-sorting are really the most effective ways to purify material!

[@ButterflyKisses.]

I got one of those crazy oversized trees black walnuts in my backyard my neighbor hates it. without asking us , he cut his side all the way up on the tree down. Either way about three garbage bags or at least a half a bag of the three and put it in the garbage hoping that when it comes to the landfill they'll be walnut trees growing everywhere, to fill up the land dump field .😊

[@Tom-yc8jv]

Salt the water to float the meat

[@SamDJackson]

wow thank you this is incredible advice. I've got 2 big bags of cured black walnuts from last fall that I only use on rare special occasions because they're such a pain to crack. This advice is going to make it reasonable!

[@midwestribeye7820]

Fantastic video as always! I'll be purchasing those screens and trying this next season. This was my first season foraging them. I gathered 3 ice cream buckets (hulled). I wasn't sure if I'd like the taste. LOVED them! I'm aiming to get much more next season. Thank you for sharing your knowledge!😊

[@131dyana]

Thank you very much.

[@ms.dialed2664]

Thank you for this video, we have quite a few black walnut trees on our property that I have never attempted to harvest the nut meats from because of the tediousness of the process. The timing is good as there is a new crop on the ground, I am going to try it.

[@saulgoldstein-i1n]

the hulls can be used for metal polishing like gun brass shakers the may have to be made small but not always

[@michellekelly1746]

Great video; thanks for sharing your methods! It's one thing to learn identification and know what's good to harvest, but it can be a much bigger hurdle to know how to process things step by step. And some things just don't feel worth the time, so your knowledge is much appreciated!

[@KennethMiller-u6y]

Try cracking them not on your flat side or top side but from the too side rotate the nut 90 degrees but not on the flat side. I find this works best

[@walkers]

That was awesome. Thanks buddy. I feel like my attitude towards using those guys is now changed!

[@FeralForaging]

Awesome, that's exactly what happened to me and what I hope for others too. 🙏

[@sandrahusbands3345]

Very interesting! Thanks! I’ve read that the common folk that had to deal with the Chernobyl spill in Russia treated radiation sickness by making a tincture of the skins of black walnuts that have natural iodine and painted the back of their knees for best absorption. (For future reference!😖)

[@Garysopinion]

Think the sharp shells may be a good slug deterrent. Have been using egg shells and pine needles around strawberries and mushroom growing.

[@marilynpowers3444]

I just spread the cracked walnuts on a cookie sheet and use a corsage pin to pick out the nutmeats!! Much quicker and not as messy as the 💦 water !!

[@AndyWilliams-stusbrews72s]

Good job brother! Excellent video! Truly a helpful method, very much appreciated. Thanks for putting in the time for this video!

[@MichaelRada-INDUSTRY50]

well done, thank you for sharing. I was thinking to freeze the soaked nuts as well but have not tested. Here in my city (Plzen, Czech Republic, Europe) I know only one AMERICAN BLACK WALLNUT tree, so the supply is very limited.

[@TheCritterWindow]

Look up Blue Bowl it is a gold separator. That might work for sorting.

[@FeralForaging]

That's really cool! Might work. Thanks for sharing with me.

[@sueyoung2115]

I find it works great for separating black sand from gold, never thought of this , though. Great idea!

[@itsno1duh]

After one miserable fall/winter deskinning and cracking BL walnuts I had learned a healthy respect for the difficulty of the task! Often requiring a hammer! But then I would see a squirrel cheerfully pick one up and with seemingly no effort at all he would crack the shell and get his dinner! Squirrels are instinctively wise! Like there is a secret code that they already know, right? Thx Jah!

[@waltrogersmusic]

New Skill Unlocked✅

[@doughurst7831]

Black walnuts are difficult but they are the richest and most delicious of all the nuts,especially for baking. My Mom would make Jubilee Jumble cookies for me every Christmas, and while English walnuts were very good, nothing compares to black walnuts! Unfortunately, Jubilee Jumble cookies are just about as tedious to prepare as black walnuts are to process. I miss having access to them but I can’t bring myself to pay the price for the commercial ones, even while fully understanding why they are so expensive. Buying blackberries and raspberries are the same, I have a hard time paying for something I used to gather in the woods.

[@warthogA10]

A small bench vice and a bucket is a great way to shell.

[@KansanWolf]

This is a game changer - Thanks!

[@amanecer4914]

This was so helpful.. black walnutt hual for parasites, you demos and suggestions are helpful .. thanks a bunch

[@FeralForaging]

Very welcome!

[@laurahamilton6365]

They are called Classifiers, used to separate finer rocks, crystals, etc from coarse. great idea!

[@GrandpasGoodyGetter]

Awesome Video.. 5 thumb ups.

[@FeralForaging]

Thank you! Same to the Goody Getter! 😄