How to gather and clean THOUSANDS of black walnuts, fast and easy

[@FeralForaging]

📝Get your ridiculously detailed workflow guide here! 👇 feralforaging.com/black-walnut-guide Don’t forget to check out Hammons if you want delicious wild black walnuts shipped straight to your door! (With my code “feral” for 10% off your order 😄) www.hammonspantry.com/collections/wild-black-walnuts/products/fancy-large-wild-black-walnuts I hope you enjoyed this video. I poured a LOT of work into it. Please feel free to respond to this comment if you have any questions or any follow up videos on black walnut you'd like to see! 🙏

[@ContemplativeChaos]

Great video. Do you mind if I tag this video in a video I am making? It's geared more for getting your kids involved in this so it shouldn't take away from this videos success

[@FeralForaging]

@@ContemplativeChaos I don't mind! Thanks for sharing.

[@nancyhainline2517]

That is what I do, too.

[@Last-Varangian]

I would love to see how you make dye and especially ink from the leftover hulls.

[@terrypomatto907]

In 1973 we purchased 20 acre of marginal farm land. On the property there was a large Black Walnut tree. I collected a tub full of nuts from the tree. I put them with a screen cover (keep squirrels from taking them) next to the shed. Left the nuts with the hulls in water sit there all winter. The next summer I noticed the nuts had sprouted and were making trees. We had about fourteen acres of poor pasture so I started digging holes twenty foot apart and planted a grove of walnut trees (over three hundred). We sold the property to our eldest son and now forty years later he has the stand of some excellent Black Oak trees to use as his retirement while he has been consuming the nuts and he has even sold nuts to people who desired them, That is in Southern Illinois.

[@brendavontungeln840]

Black walnut trees make quality lumber for fine woodworking.

[@DAS-Videos]

Black walnut trees reproduce like crazy. And squirrels plant them all over the place. I had a couple trees right against my foundation and it was not easy digging them out.

[@JSmith-tr4vw]

What an awesome story .What a beautiful way to supplement a retirement.

[@UtoniumJock]

I am in Southern Illinois and seen these green balls at a park here. Fastforward a year and now this video and your comment. Now I must also go gather some nuts and plant some trees for my grandson. 😊

[@ithacacomments4811]

I live in a high rise apartment complex with a rooftop garden. Fall 2023, squirrels planted thousands of black walnuts in our raised bed garden boxes! on the 4th floor! Nearest black walnut tree is 1/2 mile away on the other side of a water channel. Squirrels! You have got to admire their work ethic.

[@BonnieBlue2A]

Crows will also carry black walnuts off and drop them.

[@laurastabell2489]

I picked up a big buckett of walnuts to plant on the farm. I sat it behind the barn. Spring came and I went to get the bucket to plant and guess what! They were gone! It was obvious soon they had all been planted! The easy way to plant your orchard!

[@snarky4lyfe144]

Oh GOD my childhood has come back to HAUNT Me!! My grandfather was a walnut farmer , he did the first slicing of English and Black walnuts in California ( back in the 40s) and as a child , my sisters and i were tasked with gathering , hulling and shelling the nuts that we would keep for the family. Grandpa used to use the dried shells as fuel for the fireplace and made the whole house smell like roasted nuts , great around the holidays. I remember having black fingers for YEARS and YEARS ! As an adult now I kind of miss the mundane task of hulling nuts for grandpa.

[@chrisingle5839]

We use an old 1940's wringer maytag washer. Throw them in the tub, and let it beat for an hour. Softens up the husk beautifully!

[@tonydalton8712]

I got a new cement mixer for that, and it works great! I pour almost a five-gallon buck of nut in and about two to three gallons of water using the water hose. Put just enough so the water won't splash out while keeping the cement mixer a little over halfway up. Turn on and let it mix for about 10 mins. Then get a screen or board and hold over cement mixer and pour out water. Repeat 3 to 5 times for super clean nuts I clean about ten thousand like that last year. Lol, I still got about 500 pounds of black walnuts in sacks now.

[@cportage556]

My neighbor used an old corn sheller with a motor, and a chicken wire backstop to remove the husks. He dropped the nut in the sheller, and it spit out a husk free nut. Then he put a couple shovels of gravel in a small cement mixer, shoveled the walnuts in the mixer, and sprayed water in the mixer as it turned. When the water started coming out clear, he took the clean nuts out, and repeated. Each batch was a few minutes. Then he spread them on his driveway, and covered them with chicken wire to dry.

[@SometimeAgo65]

I ABSOLUTELY LOVE black walnuts!!! Im older now but as a child, our mom would make three different cakes during the holidays. One of them was an old fashioned yellow cake with black walnuts in it. Then she would make a thick, chocolatey Icing and put between each layer and then pour it all over the cake. It was a thick but slightly runny icing so some of it would soak into the cake...but it firmed up and sealed in all of that moistness, and when we finally got to eat it, all of that black walnut flavor came bursting through. I will never forget the first time we tasted this cake...OMG...it was and still to this day is my ALL TIME FAVORITE CAKE!!! There is none better 😊❤❤❤

[@patduurloo7077]

The best ones I ever ate came out of a air filter on a pickup truck,thanks squirrels.

[@SometimeAgo65]

@patduurloo7077 😂

[@johncochran8497]

I will never forget a scene I saw on a morning talk show while I was a child. They had two hosts. One woman and one man. One day as a local color piece, the man brought in a bag of black walnuts and proceeded to demonstrate husking them and encouraged the lady to husk a few as well. A few minutes later you could see the woman wiping at her hands carefully with a white cloth, then she asked the man, "how do you clean this from your hands?" He responded along the lines of "you can't. you have to wait for it to wear off." You could see that she was exerting all her will power to not curse at the guy.

[@orgorg239]

My dad nailed two boards together as a 90 degree trough. One side was put on a chair. My dad jacked the wheel of the jeep up and let my brother and I drop the walnuts down the trough and they rolled under the spinning wheel. They shot out after shredding the husk. We let them dry in the cinder driveway. When dry, we picked them up and cracked them in the winter while watching "Wagon Train" on the old black and white tv.

[@MrBetc]

Our father used to gather walnuts and then run them over in the driveway with his 68 Chrysler until the outer green casing was off then load them into his hanging wire fruit basket that he hung above his wood stove in the garage. All winter long him and his buddies would gather on a Sat aft swap stories and munch on walnuts.

[@danielwebb1004]

My dad put his truck up on jacks with a board underneath a tire hovering in the air, put a brick on the accelerator pedal, and shoot green walnuts between the spinning tire and the board. It worked amazingly well, but probably would not pass an OSHA inspection...

[@KuruyDgdbsjsn]

They were high af lmaooo

[@Encourageable]

We used to do that when I was a kid - they’d sit in the driveway all winter then we’d pick them up in the spring perfectly cleaned.

[@jaspersknoll9013]

I bet not😂​@@danielwebb1004

[@kc_liberty_avenger5001]

@@danielwebb1004. 👏 💯 💥

[@pjhoover1]

It's much more than a dye. Make a black walnut husk tincture and use it to remove parasite from your & your pets intestinal track. Good stuff! My favorite nut!❤

[@millergrrrl]

From the green hulls, yes?

[@Ejuicey]

​Best way is whole and green, right off the tree. Fill a jar with em, top up with cheap vodka. ​Glycerine or cider vinegar works, but won't last as long. Steep for 6 weeks, then strain off and keep the liquid. Source: me, made tons of the stuff @@millergrrrl

[@TrickleCreekFarm]

@@millergrrrlyes, that is the strongest…

[@montanawarren8462]

The black comes from the iodine in the black walnut which is part of an Ojibwe cancer killing recipe along with wormwood and cloves

[@stephaniemoore-fuller9082]

When I was growing up, we would throw them all in the (gravel) driveway and leave them there for a week or so. By then, they’d be separated from the hulls and partially dried, and we’d go out with gloves and pick them out of the hulls and gravel. Any plant inhibiting action was just preventing weeds in the driveway.

[@edubbs3528]

Same. The most effort my mom put into it was driving the Vista Cruiser over all of the nuts by having slightly different paths each time we drove up. Then after a week or so she'd have us gather the nuts into a brown paper bag. That was pretty much it.

[@TanukiOfficial]

Nice!

[@TanukiOfficial]

I don't know why your video appeared in my feed, but I absolutely couldn't be happier! I do not have any black walnuts nor do I know where any black walnut trees are, but I loved your video. I found the topic fascinating. I had no idea that black walnuts had two shells, the process was so laborious, black walnuts can be used for dyeing, and that the detritus from the shelling was toxic to some plants. I didn't know how much knowledge is required. I enjoyed seeing the process. Your voice, delivery, and presentation of the steps provided were exceptional. Thank you for such a great video!! I'm off to watch "The last black walnut processing video you'll ever need." 😂

[@ShockedSquirrelhere]

I absolutely would love to see using the dye!

[@larryrehmann8166]

For very good results I used an old time hand crank corn shelled. No mess and was fun especially for children to turn the old rank.

[@stephenphill8]

My great grandmother apparently would make a dye from the hulls every year and refinish the house floor boards.

[@jerrybowman501]

Great video and extremely helpful. I am a lifelong trapper and use the black from the hulls to die my traps.

[@gerald4027]

Alder tree bark is good for traps.

[@jerrybowman501]

@@gerald4027 thanks

[@westcoaster3763]

I use both, as well as maple

[@raywhitehead730]

Black walnuts in a spice cake, heaven.

[@aalbertsr]

When we were little (50's) we would dry them on the floor in the garage. When it got good and dark we would peek in on them to see all the glow worms and hear them squishing around in the hulls.

[@MrRoss2003]

Last year my brother gave me a bunch of black walnuts. I ended up using my concrete mixer with some gravel mixed with the nuts to clean them. Love your videos.👍

[@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.

[@teresagray1269]

We used a heavy rake to gather, an antique hand crank corn sheller to peal the hulls off by the thousands and a couple bench vice's to crack them and then hand nut crackers and a nut pick.

[@Zippo_Squeeze]

tf, i have a shit ton of htese in the woods near my house, I had absolutely no idea what these were, and thankfully, it's not a dense forest. Plenty of sunlight. This is cool!

[@banjohappy]

Sure is a lot of work but they are tasty. Butternuts are delicious too. Had a BW tree in my yard once and was so frustrated with how hard it was to get at the meat I just ended up running over them with my lawn mower. You didn't want to be anywhere near the chute when I was mowing! My friend had a barn with a BW tree next to it and the red squirrels used to roll the BW's in the rain gutter to where they'd chewed a hole into the attic of his barn. An old couple had lived in my house many years before I bought it. He had died first and she just lived in the downstairs. When I was putting a chandelier in the dining room, I pulled up the floor in the bedroom above and the squirrels had chewed between all the joists and filled the whole area between them with walnuts, which were all empty shells by the time I got to them. That old lady must have gone crazy with all the noise of the squirrels in the ceiling!

[@gerald4027]

Hazel is good to but alot of work.

[@forestgreen315]

I use two wire baskets. Fill the bottom basket, then attach the other basket to hold them in while I use my pressure washer to clean the hulls off. Works like a charm. Then hang the nuts in a mesh bag to dry.

[@Friedbrain11]

Never had a problem gathering walnuts from the ground. We let them dry in a group and then used our feet(with shoes on) to crush off the outer shell. Had a lot of fun opening them and getting the meat out. They were so good. It was easier to remove the outer hulls when they were dark. To crack open we use a hammer and a brick. No problem and very easy to do.

[@kathygarner419]

You can also concentrate the liquid and use it to stain unfinished wood. The green hulls from immature walnuts can be used to treat ring worm. My grandma used it on us and it does work. Although as you indicated it does stain the skin. You just pull a green immature walnut from the tree take a sharp knife and slice some of the green hull from the nut and rub it into the area affected once a day for a week or so. By the way reuse the same walnut, just place in a container in the refrigerator.

[@withoutprejudice8301]

Ive had Garand Pa's Goodie Getter for 2 years now. Best thing I've used by far. Got the same roller gathering tool too.

[@jessicapayne8622]

There’s a walnut tree near where I live. Last year I collected loads. Threw some in the garden and one sprouted!! I now have a very small walnut tree!! So proud!

[@domenicscarfo1866]

My mom used too use the husk for dark brown hair dye in the 1950s.

[@clover-toadnature9705]

There is a much easier and simpler method that my family uses! All you have to do once you have gathered them, is spread them out to dry, concrete or gravel is an excellent choice, but anywhere is fine. After a few weeks once they are all black and dry, you can very easily remove the hulls with your hands, some stubborn bits may need stepped on a bit, but it is very easy. Leave them spread out again until the shells are visibly dry. Crack and utilize as you so desire. --- Bonus about this method is that you never even have to see the grubs because they will leave of their own volition as the hulls dry. --- If squirrels thieving your walnuts is an issue i imagine a simple chicken wire box is all that is needed. --- Thank you, have a great day!

[@lauriemclean1131]

Would love to see a video about uses for the black walnut hulls.

[@nancyhainline2517]

Our neighbor would buy hills from Hammonds Walnut Products by the pickup truck load. He would shovel them into a manure spreader and spread them on his rescue hay field. He had a great weedless stand of fescue.

[@nancyhainline2517]

Oops "hulls"

[@RichardRoche-c2w]

My grandmother’s house, with its postage-stamp sized lot, had FOUR productive black walnut trees. As to hulling them, we stepped on them.

[@j.c.culbreath-julian4230]

I’d love to see how to make the ink!

[@kurzhaarguy]

I do want to find your guide. Where I live, southern Wisconsin, walnuts grow around your feet if you walk slowly. An immediate side product is metal dye. As a trapper, I’ve dyed traps for years. The leftover pulp, especially when, “inky,” can be filtered and reduced (simmered) to a dense dye, even dried to powder. That converts rust and preserves it naturally. For eons, trappers have boiled their traps in this as a, “logwood,” dye. But it works on all rust. Thanks for the video!

[@kurzhaarguy]

@@kkjppt5359 I have not but I know it was used as a stain back in time.

[@nancyhainline2517]

Our neighbor used to buy the hulls from Hammons Walnut Products. He would dump them in a manure spreader and dispense them on his hay field. He had a great stand of fescue with very few weeds.

[@katieeisenhower1168]

Thank you for your channel! The editing is awesome and your delivery of info is equal parts entertaining and factual.

[@dudeusmaximus6793]

We use my great-grandpa's old manual corn sheller and does a pretty good job.

[@kathygarner419]

@@dudeusmaximus6793 I agree that this is a good way to remove the hulls. When I was a child we picked up enough black walnuts every fall to fill our pickup to the top of the stock racks with burlap bags of hulled walnuts and sold them to a local broker to make extra cash.

[@fredsalwolke7597]

I've found out putting about a 5 gallon bucket full of nuts on the ground and using a garden tractor to smash the hulls works best. I purchased a light duty cement mixer from Home Depot to wash the nuts. Throw in a bucket full of nuts, add a gallon of water, and walk away for 10 minutes. Might have to change the water a couple of times, depending on how clean you want them. While the mixer is running, you can get the hulls off the next batch. Very time efficient.

[@tonydalton8712]

Best way they are, I clean about ten thousand last year.

[@steveterranova8500]

I have a 3 foot square of plywood with 1x2s screwed around the outside edge. I left a gap in the 1x2s about 8” wide at one corner. I put a bunch of walnuts on it and use my feet to squash the green hulls. I can then lift up the board and dump them into a basket using the gap in the corner. Works great. Make sure to wear shoes you don’t care about. 😂

[@quackerzdb]

For removing the husk, just step on them, put your weight on it, and twist your boot. It's super easy and effective. Then just pick the nut out of the loose hull.

[@jackrowe5571]

Don't walk on your wife's carpets without removing your shoes and socks! Maybe your long pants too. 😊

[@KenHill]

Really, that's all you need to do........ Unless you have many hundreds or thousands of nuts to process, in which case you need to use a mud mixer or cement mixer or similar.

[@az55544]

So many of these new homesteaders make things more difficult than they need to be. I step on each nut before picking it up and dropping it into a bucket. When i get home, i either lay them out to dry or i use a drill mounted mixer to spin them in a bucket of water for a few minutes. As long as they are dried down, they store just fine with some husk still on.

[@withoutprejudice8301]

Mud mixer paddle is best I've seen next to a modified harbor freight cement mixer.

[@Zazai101]

Those are some BIG walnuts.

[@hondolane3125]

When I was a kid 50 years ago, my dad taught me to cut the fresh hulls with a shop knife and peel them, then smash them on the concrete floor with a large hammer. Black hands, and what nut meat didn't get shot into another dimension was crushed under the hammer. Now, I let them dry over the winter in the garage, and then just roll them under my boot on concrete to flake away the dry hull. Then I wrap the nut in a rag and put it into the vise jaw. A quick yank on the handle and they crack, but don't smash and the nut is whole and unharmed. Repeat for the remaining large chunks of hull, as needed. I learned a lot from my dad, but this is about the only thing I DON'T do the way he did. R.I.P. dad.

[@Linda-pd2jg]

I love my Goody Getter. I've had it for years. I wouldn't want to use anything else.

[@rottenroadkill3311]

I'm not super obsessed with efficiency, mostly just with something that doesn't tire out my hands or back. I found two rocks, one that is flat with a groove that holds the nuts in place and another that's rounded, not too heavy and fits in my palm. With that I can sit and take one gloved hand and grab a nut, smash it and pull the nut out and chuck it in a bucket. Can go through 10 nuts in a minute and I don't get too tired in my hands or have to bend over. The hardest part of my harvest is cleaning off the remaining hull since I don't have a hose (I live on the second story apartment). I found soaking them overnight and giving them a good rub with fish gloves on gets rid of most of the remaining flesh and then I haven't found the taste to be anything off-putting with having some of the fruit still attached during the drying process.

[@clover-toadnature9705]

That is what I do to crack mine :) An easy method for the hulls is once you have gathered them, is spread them out to dry, concrete or gravel is an excellent choice, but anywhere is fine. After a few weeks once they are all black and dry, you can very easily remove the hulls with your hands, some stubborn bits I get with the sharp edge of a busted geode (I am sure a clever resourceful person such as yourself will have no problem coming up with your own solution). Leave them spread out again until the shells are visibly dry. Crack and utilize as you so desire. 🐸

[@Arboreal_Fungi]

Another great tutorial! I appreciate the time you put into testing different options

[@FeralForaging]

Very welcome!

[@backachershomestead]

We always have something gets inside them and eats the good stuff if they have fallen on the ground. When I first see one on the ground, I use a fruit picker and pick everything I can. Place them in a burlap bag. I tie them up somewhere dry,barn or shed. My beck porch is high off the ground and covered. So I hang them there Usually, they are dry,husk completely crumbly. In about 3 months. I crack them, and good to go. I know it takes some time to dry , but it works for me.

[@az55544]

In a plastic milk crate next to the wood stove works great. But not too close. Not the heat, just the dryness.

[@skullheadwater9839]

Thanks for the info, makes me happy I live in Pecan territory.

[@raddlog]

Garden Weasel is the way to go. I just gathered up a bunch last night. I'm getting more this weekend.

[@christinamoneyhan5688]

In order to haul the walnuts , I used to run them through a hand operated corn shelled. Worked great.

[@jerisharpe906]

Growing up in the thumb of Michigan was we had 7 fully grown BLACK WALNUT trees in a row on our property. We would roll them on a cement slab with our foot (with our shoes on, outside) We were heating our kitchen with an old fashion wood stove & would spread them out in a single layer on a newspaper, underneath the stove. After they were dried we would then crack them open & use them.

[@HSR-bk5qb]

Looking for tips on how to save the hulls for black walnut tincture as well as how to deal with maggots that often appear under the hulls when they've been on the ground for a bit. Thanks!

[@valhicks19]

I asked him about the maggots on patreon and he said they're not an issue and don't affect the nut itself. If you are processing them bulk like this and not handling them directly then you might not even notice the maggots!

[@clover-toadnature9705]

If you just leave them somewhere to turn black and dry, the grubs leave on their own. They are easier to peel this way too :) as for saving the hull drying would probably work too.

[@ExFed2021]

I took 5 walnuts still in the green husk and boiled them for about 15 minutes. I then used the greenish brown water to age some props I made for a halloween display. It took three coats, but made brand new lumber look like 100 year old wood, which was my goal. Turned out fantastic!

[@luke_fabis]

Black walnuts are super funky though. They taste the way fresh oak smells, with a note of something plasticky and medicinal. I can't say I particularly enjoy them.

[@k9spot1]

Walnut husks WILL stain. Fun fact, some self tanning products will list various walnut oils and extracts and such as ingredients. If you’ve never heard of walnut inks they come in green, brown, and black and that’s just taking the husks at different stages of decomposition. It’s a pretty viable alternative to regular ink for most uses

[@agnespunya]

Green Black Walnut hulls is what i take for Parasite cleanse! But i bought then ready product!

[@b2bogster]

Show everything you can. This is really interesting.

[@robinbrook5624]

Could have used this video 50 years ago! My black walnut tree and I grew up together. When I was a kid, I earned a penny for every nut I picked up out of the yard. Then they were either given away or thrown in the trash. For the past 30 some years, I've just tossed the aside and let the squirrels have them. Now that I now know an easy way to haul them, the squirrels might be out of luck next year. 😁

[@vinbarnes]

Thank you. I have a black walnut tree and the squirrels get all the spoils. I'll start using the techniques you've shared.

[@marcdipaolo5142]

Great video. Well-produced and full of great info. Thanks!

[@bearwill4737]

I harvest Black Walnut's, I strip off the hull with a corn shucker, works slick. I dry the hulls & grind them down to powder in a Vitamix. I make tincture, its a broad spectrum pathogen killer. We take it, dogs get some & ducks & chickens get some in their water. I slice the nut on a bandsaw at 1/4 inch thick, the meat most always falls right out. I made a double Dutch Chocolate Coconut Walnut Cake 4 layers thick with Chocolate Muse between layers. It was killer addicting, my birthday cake.

[@miko-jl4xv]

Good stuff as usual ! Love from France !

[@michelehaynes1112]

We had a black walnut tree in our backyard in 83’ and I remember fruit trees pears peaches apples berries we also had more gardens in KS in the hood.

[@TimothyTate-tc5yk]

I use a tamper like the one used to tamp gravel or sand or dirt in forms. The tamper work very well for the hole in walnuts because the tamper is squared.

[@ErikLiberty]

I'd use a dirt tamper instead of using a wood handle to crush them. A tamper is basically a wood handle with a plate at the bottom that can crush many at once.

[@Gryphon2026]

Thats a good idea 😊 thanks!

[@davidcollins4225]

Do you think they would be strong enough to work effectively on multiple walnuts at the same time?

[@ronhaefner7833]

Back on the diary farm we used a hand corn sheller. Really fast. Hard to find these days. But fast.

[@julie-nm6lv]

I had collected a bunch of walnuts cleaned them and it turned out they were wormy like all of them, wish I had checked to see how they were inside before I spent all that time cleaning them, live and learn

[@averykempf9164]

Yes, I'd like to see how to make dye and ink!

[@stacyclark5283]

Yes please do more videos about ALL the things you can do with black walnuts. So informative! Thank you! Wasn't a great year for walnuts in my area though.

[@cindyyeager8627]

When my mother was a young girl in the 30's, she would gather black walnuts and the family would process them to sell. Times were tough but everyone wanted black walnuts. Her favorite ice cream flavor was black walnut.

[@TKCTSTN]

When i went to apply for my first morgage in 1980, i had quite a surprise. After spending the morning husking & cracking nlack walnuts. Naturallt, my hands were stained rather dark. I thought i had lemon juice or even bleach. Absolutely nothing to get the stain off. I remember mostly sitting on my hands & was pleasantly surprised that i was approved. This was a time that a nonwealthy single female would often be denied. 😊

[@keahvaymoss7910]

I’ve waited for this video!! Ty!

[@EHam-gi3mq]

Here's a way to use the hulls. Mix them with water and strain the water. This hull infused water can be poured on the ground and it makes earthworms come to the surface. Free fish bait.

[@techmarine83]

When my family owned a three story brick historical home built just after the Revolutionary War we had two black walnut trees in our yard. One was about 20 feet from the back door and was at least 150 years old and about 4-4 1/2 feet in diameter. I would collect all of the walnuts every year and some I used as baseballs and the rest I would leave in a wheelbarrow. I would mix them every so often until they rotted down to a pitch black liquid and I would pour it onto our garden.

[@bigwilderness3006]

The old hand crank corn sheller also can husk the walnuts. Some come with a paddle type wheel but if they are dark not fresh the regular sheller wheel works.

[@kurzhaarguy]

I do want to find your guide. Where I live, southern Wisconsin, walnuts grow around your feet if you walk slowly. An immediate side product is metal die. As a trapper, I’ve died traps for years. The leftover pulp, especially when, “inky,” can be filtered and reduced (simmered) to a dense die. That converts rust and preserves it naturally. For eons, trappers have boiled their traps in this as a, “logwood,” die. But it works on all rust.

[@ThePickledsoul]

You can use the husk water to make something like henna.

[@sasssquatch1467]

Don't forget, those hulls contain iodine. The hulls can be turned into walnut stain/dye/ink. If squeezed of it's juice (while the hull is fresh) and dried, the juices will grow green crystals that can be rehydrated and turn brown when in solution. After pulling the meat from the shells, you can turn the shells into high caloric value charcoal.

[@withoutprejudice8301]

Another thing that first husk removal water can be used for is collecting worms for fishing. Justpour it on ground and it irritates their skin. They'll come to surface pretty quick. Be sure to have a bucket of fresh water to place them in MOMENTARILY to remove irritant. And I won't discuss how the husk is used for fishing.

[@flyingtime5501]

Oh we know😂😂😂

[@amistry605]

Black walnut wood is amazing too 😃. This tree is the best.

[@jerryweiser1145]

I use walnut hulls to make dye,stain.istained yellow pine and white pine with it Made 15 gallons last year gonna make 15 this year

[@tarajoyce3598]

Yes I want to see all the things!

[@omaeve]

You bought a lot of modern tools, but the old one that granddaddy used was a corn Shellar. He did build a wooden ramp so that as we showed them, they would roll right off into the bucket. Also, he put them in the house as soon as he gathered them in the basement on cardboard. This was not any special reason to make them ripen or anything just to keep the squirrels from stealing them as fast as we gather them, also use a small metal disk that they used to use to mark where your gas or your water was. I don’t know where he got his from, but it didn’t jump around when he was banging on the walnuts to crack them with a hammer we had four different types of walnut crackers, and he still preferred the hammer, and I took them and sorted out the shells from the walnuts, the biggest walnuts for sale and the broken pieces to go in the freezer to bake apple walnut cake. Anything that was left that was extra tiny. I ran through a spice grinder and all the shells would not go through so it was nothing but walnuts groundfor the finished product I don’t know how much you’re selling them for but he got $11 a pound and this is many years ago. I’m 70 now and I was when we were doing this.

[@wamlartmuse17]

I would go to a black walnut tree for a couple years. But the hulls were off already. I'd only gather about 50 because they are a pain to open. But there were hundreds. They're good to go when you find them like that.

[@joyceobeys6818]

My grandpa used a vise. He put them in small baggies then put them in a large baggie n put them in the freezer n fridge n grandma put them in cookies or we just ate them for a treat. We had 2 large black walnut trees n put the black walnuts into the driveway n the cars ran them over to get the hills off n then the nut kind of dried n we collected them n put into burlap bags n took them next door to grandpa. My mom hated mowing with all of them nuts on the ground. And daddy tried to cut the trees down several times but they grew right back! LOL and i was praying they would 😂

[@karenromando4939]

Glad I found you. I have been wanting to know how to use the walnuts when they turn black outside.

[@viewsandreviews180]

Thank you for sharing this information. Have you ever tried a hand tamper for hulling black walnuts? I’ve had good results using one. As far as the hulls after hulling, I’ve found the “juice” can be used for dying cloth (no reduction required), as writing ink (some reduction required) and as powdered dye if dried completely. I’ve been told the hulls contain a good amount of iodine but I can’t confirm that.

[@anitapeura3517]

Yes please, can we see their use as dye and ink? Thanks for all the useful info. I had bags of nuts once from a neighbour and left them on a high shelf in the garage - rats got them! So now I know to hang the bags, as shown here.

[@mariasaha8303]

I’ve been making my own black walnut ink, so I would definitely love any vids on making inks ❤

[@googleuser868]

Got a small tree that squirrels must have planted. Didn't know what it was until it started fruiting. Probably 50 nuts this year. Got me interested in relearning how to process them when this popped up.

[@myfavs253]

I like the car tire method. Put them in your gravel driveway for 2 weeks and drive over them. They will turn black, the hull will dry out and fall off. You might have to rinse the fine sand off. Easy, but I don't need a huge amount.

[@karenpruitt6833]

Question: our power company came through and put growth inhibitor in our soil. How does this contaminate our blacl walnut crop. How long does it stay in the soil. It effects our raspberry patch also.😢

[@pambennett8967]

Def call and complain. You could try planting weeds that are known to pull toxins from the soil, then collect and throw away far from your food crops. I would also call local permaculture people and ask them BEFORE ingesting any food from your garden. And at a guess, years before you can use the garden

[@karenpruitt6833]

​@@pambennett8967 Thanx 😢

[@gafairbanks2434]

​@@pambennett8967 7 years to be decontaminated by nature.

[@tastyfrzz1]

The black walnuts my dad planted in northern minnesota in the 60s are now making nuts. At first the squirrels had no idea what they were.

[@wayne-oo]

Fast fact , you can water your lawn with the leftover outer hull and force nite crawlers to the surface for fishing !

[@Willy12927]

I use an old corn sheller that has been adapted to run with an electric motor.Amazing how many walnuts I can hull in a short amount of time.

[@Stella-n-Luna]

Yes, PLEASE Jesse! Come help me gather and harvest my black walnuts soon!!

[@Ch4grin]

I'd suggest adding in comments regarding mast years, identifying walnuts in the spring and differentiating from rhus typhina or ailanthus altissima, and for those interested in planting a walnut tree a conversation on juglans ailantifolia var. 'cardiformis' or juglans regia.

[@robertadorian4234]

My husband put them in a 5 gallon bucket with water and used a paint stiring bit on a drill

[@Bill-ie3wn]

You can also squeeze the oil from walnuts to use in cakes and such . Mmmmm good .

[@karenbearden6198]

Great info! Thanks very much. I have made walnut ink for art and wood staining and it's amazing, well worth the effort IMO.

[@fredrickvanolphen3299]

What a great video! I lived on a walnut orchard in California when I was a kid. ❤️🙏❤️

[@bonniehyden962]

Due to family obligations and emergencies, I wasn't able to pick up the walnuts from our tree at our new house right away. They're completely black, now. Is this ok? Should I proceed with the process you've described here? Or should I just wait for next year's harvest?

[@kenfrutiger2471]

I would save the hulls and water. The high tannins are great for dying traps and acid tanning hides!!