would you gather, dry, and eventually eat the walnuts? I need several walnut shells for a craft project, and we have a couple black walnut trees. I'm thinking that if I have to take the trouble to gather them and crack the hulls open, I might as well harvest the actual nut meat as well. Have any of you ever done this before?
space opera
Posted by Space Opera (Member # 6504) on :
Yeah, so...ummm... Mr. Opera just pointed out that I could just go to Wal-Mart and buy a bag of walnuts still in the shells.
space opera
Posted by mackillian (Member # 586) on :
mmm...walnuts.
Posted by King of Men (Member # 6684) on :
Ick. I hate walnuts.
Posted by Hamson (Member # 7808) on :
mmm...craft project.
Posted by ElJay (Member # 6358) on :
If I had a walnut tree, I would certainly at least try to eat the walnuts, just 'cause it would be fun. Even if I didn't need the shells for anything. Posted by Synesthesia (Member # 4774) on :
Me too. Walnuts are gross. And so is Walmart. Ew. Walmart and walnuts.
Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
I agree with ElJay--much more fun to harvest and eat my own walnuts than to buy a bag of them from Walmart.
That said, there's a decent chance that your walnuts will be buggy, especially if they've been on the ground for very long. My brother harvested a bunch of pecans a few years ago, and probably a third of the ones he gave me were inedible.
Posted by Elizabeth (Member # 5218) on :
Darn it! I made a long post here. This keeps happening.
Anyway, what i would make if I had a walnut tree would the chiles with walnut sauce recipe from "Like Water for Chocolate."
Posted by littlemissattitude (Member # 4514) on :
Absolutely. When I was a child, my grandma had about three or four acres of walnut trees, and it was a family project every year to harvest the nuts. Great fun. I still miss doing walnut harvest every fall.
Then, when we moved into a tract home when I was six, we had three walnut trees in the back yard. Again, every year we picked up the nuts (I got 5 cents a bucket) and dried them, hulled them, cracked and bagged the meats and sold what we didn't use. My dad had the garage all fixed up with a wood stove (to keep warm and to burn the shells, which we had no other use for) and a TV, and we would sit out there in the evenings and work through the harvest. Every once in a while, my cat would get hold of one of the walnuts and bat it around the garage floor for an hour or so. It was fun.
One warning, though. Unless you want stained hands, wear gloves when you hull the walnuts.
Posted by Stan the man (Member # 6249) on :
We have one at my parents' house. I remember one time that my dad went out and collected walnuts, and then never did again.
Posted by Bob_Scopatz (Member # 1227) on :
You could try making walnut oil.
Posted by Tante Shvester (Member # 8202) on :
Black walnuts are very yummy, but awfully hard to crack.
I'd catch some of the walnuts and eat them, but I don't think I'd go so far as to start a walnut business.
That would just be nuts.
Posted by Elizabeth (Member # 5218) on :
"Unless you want stained hands, wear gloves when you hull the walnuts."
Which is why the Native Americans used walnut shells for dying wool.
Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
quote:Which is why the Native Americans used walnut shells for dying wool.
Or as they called it, maize.
Posted by breyerchic04 (Member # 6423) on :
the walnuts you buy at the store still in shells are english walnuts and are smoother. Black walnuts have very ridgy shells under the green hull, so it depends on the look you want. We've used our black walnuts before, but I forget what all we did, I remember putting them in a trash bag and driving over them, though that could have been for dye instead of eating purposes, who knows it might have been for both, I was like 7.
Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
Here's a picture of a black walnut shell, just to give a visual reference for what breyerchic is saying.
Posted by ElJay (Member # 6358) on :
But the question is, are they tasty?
Posted by breyerchic04 (Member # 6423) on :
I don't think there's much difference between black and english walnuts in taste, but I remember thinking they weren't really worth the effort of cracking (again I was young and fairly lazy).
Posted by Icarus (Member # 3162) on :
quote:Or as they called it, maize.
Huh? Maize is corn! Posted by Tante Shvester (Member # 8202) on :
The black walnut is tastier than the English walnut, but people prefer the English walnut because the black walnut is just too hard to crack.
Posted by Kayla (Member # 2403) on :
We used to make mice in beds with walnut shells. I think. We'd make a mouse head (out of felt) and blanket and put it in a half shell. Then glue some string to both sides of it and you have an ornament.
Posted by Elizabeth (Member # 5218) on :
"Or as they called it, maize."
Yeah, what Icarus said.
Native Americans really did dye wool with black walnut shells. I believe many other people did as well.
If it stains, it dyes, pretty much.
Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
The maize thing was a joke. The fact that in at least one Native American language the word for corn was "maize" is one of those bits of padding that makes it into virtually every grade schooler presentations on Native Americans and/or Thanksgiving, and it's almost always delivered as though the fact that there was another word for corn is significant. "The Native Americans taught the pilgrims how to grow corn. Or as they called it, maize", with the word "maize" stretched out almost reverently. I find this pretty funny, and among my friends it isn't uncommon, when someone makes reference to some historical element of Native American culture to say "or as the Indians called it, maize", regardless of whether that elemement has anything to do with corn or not. I've seen this done in a few TV shows, including The Simpsons (I think--I could be wrong), so I thought that it was a joke that would be broadly understood. It would seem that I was wrong.
Posted by Space Opera (Member # 6504) on :
Damn - who would have thought you people were so interested in walnuts?
I'm ashamed to say that the walnut shells are to make teeny tiny cradles out of for felted gnome and fairy babies to sleep in. My crafting is reaching illness levels, me thinks. I also have poor Mr. Opera searching out acorn tops for hats. I want to make some for Operaetta for Christmas.
I might try whacking one of the walnuts tomorrow with a hammer just to see how difficult it would be. littlemissattitude's description sounded fun.
space opera
Posted by Elizabeth (Member # 5218) on :
I sort of thought that might be where where you were coming from.
But just to take i along its course anyway, "maize" is not really a Native American term anyway.
"Now, to make matters more confusing, I have to admit that the term Maize is not a Native American term, but rather Tahino. When Columbus' expedition made landfall in 1492 they reached some island in the northern Antilles, near today's San Salvador. The island was populated by Tahino people, in whose language the name for their staple crop of this yellow grain was caled "mahis." The Spanish spread the Taino name for the plant wherever they distributed the crop throughout the world. That word has been transmutated phonetically into today's "maize" in English, "maïs" in French, and "maíz" in Spanish.
Then, to top it all off, When Linnaeus (the Swedish botanist who developed today's binomial plant classification system) devised a name for maize, he used a combination of the Taino name, and its translation into Greek in order to come up with the genus and species of the plant: Zea mays."
Space Opera, The half shells alos make for a killer ladybug ornament, with the addition of paint, googly eyes, and pipe cleaner legs.
Posted by Elizabeth (Member # 5218) on :
Not as hairy as some chests.
Posted by Treason (Member # 7587) on :
ewwwww. can't believe I didn't see that coming. Posted by Elizabeth (Member # 5218) on :
Sorry. I did stop it from getting worse, though, I will give myself that.
Posted by Treason (Member # 7587) on :
thanks for not going the other way. Posted by Nell Gwyn (Member # 8291) on :
quote:Originally posted by Space Opera: I'm ashamed to say that the walnut shells are to make teeny tiny cradles out of for felted gnome and fairy babies to sleep in. My crafting is reaching illness levels, me thinks. I also have poor Mr. Opera searching out acorn tops for hats. I want to make some for Operaetta for Christmas.
That sounds so cute! I wish I had time for crafty things.
The maize thing reminded me of a history class I took in London. Everyone in the class was American, so when we were discussing the Corn Riots, there was great confusion when the professor explained that in England, "corn" means "wheat", and what Americans call corn is called "maize". Then he threw in flaxseed and oats and other grains that non-farm-raised kids had only a hazy concept of. For some reason, the class had difficulty with this...maybe because it was 9am, and we were all half asleep. Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :
Noemon, that was hilarious. I pictured you with the most deadpan expression as I read that post.
Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
Thanks kat!
Posted by Elizabeth (Member # 5218) on :
Space Opera, I am very angry with you at this time. Why?
Because I am now OBSESSED with the chiles in walnut sauce recipe, which is one of those recipes that will take forever to make, and probably turn out like poo.
However, it being fresh walnut season, fresh chile season, and with Whole Foods Market down the road for buying pomegranates, how can I resist?
Posted by Risuena (Member # 2924) on :
As a kid, my family used to gather and eat the walnuts from our trees. It was always one of my favorite things to do and walnuts are probably still my favorite nut (cracking them was half the fun!). I don't remember a lot about the process, but I do remember it would take a long time for them to dry.
We also always had tons of walnut ornaments on our Christmas tree. If you use whole ones, you can create a cute little snowman (I know that one's still sitting around my mom's house).
I'm not sure hairy is the precise terminology to use for those things, particularly since the picture brought back a rather vivid memory of me falling out of a chestnut tree and landing on a bunch of fallen chestnuts.
My mom was picking those spines out of my hands for days :shudder:
Sadly though, I now have a craving for chestnuts and I haven't had those in years.
Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
Hickory nuts were what my family harvested when I was little, and I have fond, if dim, memories of doing so. I have slightly clearer memories of eating hickory nuts, when I remember as being utterly delicious. I probably haven't had any since I was three or so, unfortunately.
By the way, Elizableth, thanks for the information on the history of the word "maize". I had no idea it was a Tahino word. As I was typing up my explanation for my maize comment I thought about googling it to see what language it was from, but didn't have time.
Posted by Farmgirl (Member # 5567) on :
Yeah -- looks like everyone has already covered everything I was going to say, SO -- but mainly they are all right about the differences between Black Walnuts and English walnuts -- the Black being MUCH harder to crack and pick.
That being said, I love black walnuts, and take the time every year to harvest them on our place.
Here's what I do -- Pick up all the walnuts as they fall, and put them in the barn (or someplace dry) and let them set several weeks until the husks are totally black and thoroughly dried out.
Then, because (as it was stated) the hulls get your hands exceedingly black when de-hulling -- I use an antique corn sheller to help me get the hulls off.
Allow them to dry some more.
I crack them with a bench vise that I have mounted.
Then the rest is real tedious -- picking and picking little pieces of meat out of them.
I don't know if they would make good "cradles" for your project because they don't crack "clean" like English walnuts -- they usually disentigrate into many many pieces, and the middles are not hollow.
But they are yummy! My favorite nut. (besides Noemon, of course)
Farmgirl
Posted by Tante Shvester (Member # 8202) on :
Long ago, there used to be a commercial for Mazola Margarine. Some Native American looking lady, in a kind of deerskin outfit is walking through a corn field, holding an ear of corn.
She stops and looks into the camera:
"You call it corn. We call it maize. My people know all about the goodness of corn, maize, before America was America.
"You call it Mazola. Made from the goodness of Maize."
Those Native Americans practically invented margarine before the White Man ever came to these shores.
Posted by Farmgirl (Member # 5567) on :
That commercial was echoed in a satirical play put on here in Kansas back in the 1980s.
We have a suburb of Wichita called Maize, Kansas. (yes, that's the town's name).
So in this little satire skit, they are talking to this "Indian" and say something like
"I hear your settlement is just north and west of the Wichita twin-rivers camp."
and the fake Indian replies. "Yes, you call it 'Maize' but we call it 'Corn'."
Sorry - it was hilarious. But doesn't tranlate here.
Farmgirl
Posted by Elizabeth (Member # 5218) on :
"antique corn sheller"
OK, now that is ironic. hee hee.
And Farmgirl, the joke translates very well, now that those of us who were "call it maize" ignorant are now in the know.
Man, one joke after another about this. It is really a maize zing.
Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
I understand that the maize/corn joke is very big in Russia. If the Soviet Union is ever reborn, I'll bet that TASS'll have an article that discusses its surprising popularity over there.
Posted by Elizabeth (Member # 5218) on :
Are you stalking me, Noemon?
Posted by Tante Shvester (Member # 8202) on :
Better keep your ears out...
Posted by Elizabeth (Member # 5218) on :
We had better stop punning. We might start a row.
Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
...she said huskily.
Posted by Tante Shvester (Member # 8202) on :
Noemon
Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
Posted by Tante Shvester (Member # 8202) on :
Poe lent a bottle of corn squeezin's to me.
Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
::groans::
Posted by Elizabeth (Member # 5218) on :
Noemon,The groans mess up the hominy of the thread. Please stop.
Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
Aw, shucks! I didn't mean to mess anything up.
Posted by Dan_raven (Member # 3383) on :
I've heard some corny puns before, but these are just Amaizing.
I had a friend who owned some summer/retirement property out in the country, complete with an old barn. In that barn was an old electric clothes dryer. The took some wal-nuts from some of the trees, and put them in the dryer. The idea was to dry and partially husk the nuts all at the same time.
For days it sounded like the march of the Uruk Kai as dryer loads full of walnuts tumbled over and over again in a loud rythmic rumble.
I do not know if it worked. I do know that they never used that dryer again.
Posted by punwit (Member # 6388) on :
Aw shucks, a cornpun joke.
Edit to apologize to Noemon. I didn't see the second page and posted the same pun but I'll leave it cause the second part makes less sense without it.
Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
::grits teeth::
::resists pointing out that punwit's first pun was used by me just two posts before his own::
::fails::
Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
No problem punwit, it gave me a platform for launching my next volley.
Posted by punwit (Member # 6388) on :
I know it seemed like I cobbed your joke, but really it was an honest mistake.
Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
Well, you may be overstating your case a bit, but I suspect that there is a kernel of truth there.
Posted by Tante Shvester (Member # 8202) on :
Hominy puns are we going to get out of this?
Posted by Elizabeth (Member # 5218) on :
Well, i am furrowing my brow trying to come up with an answer.
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Noemon
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