Walnuts every where...What to do.?!
Walnuts every where...What to do.?
Walnuts are being harvested.When fresh,what do you need to do to get them ready to crack and eat?Seriously,I need to know.Thanks in advance.
Answers: Hi Maw Maw, it depends on what kind of walnut. Unless you have a Black Walnut tree, the best advice comes from the University of California, Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources ( http://anrcatalog.ucdavis.edu/pdf/8005.p... ). But if you have a Black Walnut tree it gets quite a bit more complicated and really messy! (Been there, done that, won't do it again!) The University of Minnesota has the best information I've run across in dealing with Black Walnuts. They're wonderful but I'd probably find someone else willing to do the hulling. *grin* Here's the link: http://www.extension.umn.edu/yardandgard...
Hope you get a bumper crop regardless and some awesome pecan pie! As far as I knew...you just crack them and eat them...or make walnut cake. It's chestnuts you have to boil or roast. Walnuts have a green cover around the shell. You need to get this off first. I have heard, easiest way, that you just lay them out on your drive way and drive over them with a car. I think a parking lot would work fine. After that, pick them up and remove the green covering. Running over them will make them come off really easy. After they are all de-covered, just lay them out somewhere open and dry them out. Check them every few days or so to see if they are ready. I would say to check them, take one walnut and crack it. If the insides aern't green(not saying they are in the first place but if they are) then they are ready. Thats about all I know!! Hope it helps! In the kitchen department of stores there are nut crackers and picks. The nut crackers crack the nut open and the picks help take the meat out of the nut.
Try to crack the Walnut around the middle where there is a ridge, this way the Walnut should crack in a perfect half if the correct pressure is put on the nut cracker. Take the pick and put it on the top where there is a sheath or layer which covers the meat and just lift that off carefully. You should be able to turn the half of the Walnut over and the meat should fall out of the shell, sometimes you might have to use the pick.
Once you have shelled the Walnuts you can put them into a glass jar or a plastic bag. I put them in a glass jar because I do not want the plastic bag to open up and then the Walnuts fall on the floor.
Once in a glass jar you should be able to store them in the refrigerator to keep them fresh, leaving them out in the open in the air dries out the meat.
You have Walnuts for eating, cooking, and/or baking. MANY people have a hard time cracking open those big old walnuts.
MANY people put them in their driveway and run over them a few times with the car to crack them and make them easier to shell.
Me? I just use a hammer - outside!
It's certainly going to be lots of work - but the payoffs will be wonderful - all winter long!!! (They freeze well when shelled.)
~J~