How to Harvest and Crack Black Walnuts

Black walnuts are difficult to crack, but a delicious North American treat. This video will show you how to harvest and process your walnuts easily and efficiently. Enjoy the totally unique flavor of black walnuts in your baking, or eat them on their own.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• nuts
• nut cracker
• walnuts
• black walnut recipe
• How To
• Do it yourself
• baking
• fall fruit

[SithSereyPheap1]

On one side of the fence are walnut trees and on the other side of the fence are horses roaming in my backyard.Are you shittin me ? black walnut can actually kill horses ? infact the walnuts are falling onto the other side of the fence where the horses are at.But i havent seen any horses died from it yet.I think i'll post a video and let you see for yourself.It's time i harvest my walnuts anyway,it's all over my backyard.

[pocklecod]

@SithSereyPheap1

Grazing horses shouldn't have much of a problem - they know what not to eat. Juglone is very toxic to them, however, so if you have horses you should be cautious. Problems usually arise when part of the black walnut gets mixed in with their bedding, but could arise if it's mixed with their food too. Out grazing, they won't have more than minor contact with a little juglone, and that definitely won't kill them.

[berndern0615]

Do you roast the nutmeat then, or do you just use them as they are???

[pocklecod]

@berndern0615

You can roast them if you like - that should make the flavour a bit milder. I usually just toss them in my baking as-is. So, it's up to your taste. One other thing you can do, if you like a milder flavour, is mix you Black walnuts with English walnuts in a recipe at a 50/50 proportion.

[USMCmazac]

You can also use the skins to fish with, Dump them in a pond and up come the fish, I promise!

[USMCmazac]

Every house I have ever moved to has had a black walnut tree.. I am just now finding out what they were.. Lol Now i will use it to kill fish :)

[tennesseecraig]

Really helpful video. I have 5 larges boxes full of old Black Walnuts and they are in great shape considering their age. This really helps. Thank you so much.... Craig in TN

[janiceywong]

A very good video. 

[pth1896]

@pocklecod Thank you for your reply.

[KallyJones]

Nut up or shut up! My favorite harvest time phrase.

[SouthShoreCasting]

Thank you for your informative video! Did you know that the husks of the Black Walnut can be made into dye or ink? I can't wait to harvest black walnuts next year. This year we harvested about 200 and just put them out in the yard for our neighborhood squirrels. They were very happy!

[debaxter1977]

THIS WAS GREAT! THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP!

[mayjenta1]

Thanks for the great vid! Will try my hand at harvesting next fall thanks to you.

[tennisbum123]

Thanks for the great video. This is my first year harvesting black walnuts (I'm in Michigan) and I had no clue how to do this. I read a few websites, but your video was the best. I did read that you can sort bad walnuts after the curing process by putting them in water and any "floaters" will be bad. I tested it and it worked. Every floater was either empty or really bitter. Soaking them overnight also softens the shell so they don't shatter as much.