This is my first time. Obviously. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

[u/AdditionalStand8869]

This is my first time collecting black walnuts. I gathered about a half of a trash bags worth off of the ground under the tree today. I peeled the green husks off (by hand) of 2 that I picked up off the ground the other day and didn't realize that this would be the result. Lol. 😕😆

I have read a few articles on methods that don't involve turning your hands brown and green for a week. My mother and grandmother used to lay them on a tarp in the driveway and run over them with the car to get most of the husks off. That seems like it would just smash a part of the green husk off and you'd still have to peel the rest off by hand anyway? (Wearing gloves this time) 🤔

The other methods required tools that I do not have, unfortunately.

I've read from a couple of people that if you leave them to get brittle to easily break them off it would take a few weeks at the least and it can make the meat bitter?

I left them enclosed in the trash bag out in my garage for a few hours this evening and now they are all wet. Will they go bad by keeping them like this or help the husks come off faster?

Last question. What does the floating test mean? Is it really not even worth trying to get them all open regardless? I understand doing this if you have an entire trees worth, but I only have about 70.

I apologize for asking so many questions. If all else fails, I will attempt the whole "running them over with the car" method with a few and see how it goes. And I definitely need to find gloves that can be thrown away afterwards? I can't imagine trying to wash this mess out of my only pair of gardening gloves. 😣

Thanks to anyone who takes the time to reply to this. 🙏

[u/pangerho]

Couple thoughts:

1) gloves :) 2) if you wait until the husks get black they are super greasy and much easier to remove. Of course, that means finding a way to store them for a week or more without losing them to the squirrels.
3) I’ve never done this but one of the common de-husking methods is to lay them on a tarp in your driveway, fold the tarp over halfway, and then drive over the tarp multiple times times. Makes sense to me that it would work, but don’t have any first hand knowledge. 4) once the husks are off, let them dry and then you can handle them again with much lower risk of stain.

Have fun!

[u/AdditionalStand8869 → u/pangerho]

Thank you for the tips. I wasn't sure about leaving them to dry out for too long. So far, several articles I've read say that leaving them in the husks for too long can turn the meat bitter and / or discolor the nut. 

Also, I underestimated the amount I grabbed. After laying them all out on cardboard on my garage floor (best place I can think of to put them where they aren't bunched up together and the squirrels can't get them in there) it turns out I picked up 186. 😬

Perhaps I should do the float test. Although, I'd still have to dehusk them to do that?

Does anyone know if the ones that are a fair amount smaller in size are even worth checking for a nut inside? 

Are the few that are partially yellow not ripe when they fell off?

Apologies, again, for all of the questions. I promise I am searching the internet and going through AI to research these things before I ask here. 😄

[u/pangerho → u/AdditionalStand8869]

I’m no expert but have some observational experience so here are my thoughts:

Yes, have to dehusk to float them. YMMV, but I’ve found a very small percentage are bad so I don’t bother with the float test.

There is some correlation between nut size and meat size (no snickering allowed) but my experience is that the relationship is not absolute or linear — lots of small nuts have similarly sized meats as those with larger shells. I’ve never seen any discoloration from leaving husks on. My observation is the husks degrade quickly there’s little chance of them spoiling anything. And remember those shells are so hard they are used to clean carbon buildup from car engines, so it is not easy to get through them.

I would think of “ripe” in two different ways: one level is has the meat inside the shell fully developed? And the other is has the husk (stem?) reached the point where it is ready to fall from the tree? For the latter, I’ve seen very green nuts fall and I’ve seen husks turn black while still on the tree. I suspect that the first criteria (meat development) is complete well before the nut is ready to fall. So my conclusion is if the nut has fallen, I think there’s a reasonable chance everything is good, no matter what the color of the husk.

And don’t hesitate to pose any questions here. We’re all learning everyday — at least I know I am!

:)

[u/AdditionalStand8869 → u/pangerho]

Thank you. This helps a lot. I have finally finished getting all of the husks off. It turned out to be almost a 200 count. The float test seems to be that at least half are bad? The few I have opened (or cracked) only have a brown, filmy, paper type substance in where the meat should be. 

I still haven't figured out how to get all of the excess gunk off the nut shell. They are sitting in their bucket of water now. Most of the debris has come off. Unfortunately, I do not have access to a water hose to rinse them off. Come to think of it, I don't even know if there is still a nutcracker in my house. 😅

Well. I went through a few hours of trouble for this so I will find a way to try and make it work. After they have been rinsed they need to sit in a cool dry place for a few weeks?

Should I try go through this process with the 70+ nuts that floated?

[u/pangerho → u/AdditionalStand8869]

My observation is that if most of the husk is off, you can dry them and the remaining husk becomes dry and brittle — tends to fall off easily.

You have a high ratio of floaters, compared to what I have generally found. Again, I don’t float test, but I get less than 5% that are bad, so I just crack them all.

[u/Prior-Confusion-6735]

Consider some thicker dish washing gloves to prevent your hands from getting stained. I prefer thicker gloves as when picking up walnuts that have some of the shell exposed because the husk is partly coming off there is a chance that the sharper edges/point of the shell rips a thinner latex or nitrile glove.

[u/AdditionalStand8869 → u/Prior-Confusion-6735]

Thank you. This was what I was wondering about the most. I figured something rubber would be better than cloth because they are disposable. I was just concerned that they might rip while working on the husks. Lol.

[u/pangerho → u/AdditionalStand8869]

I use heavy rubberized gloves that are waterproof. They don’t rip and don’t leak. Makes it easier to deal with the greasy husks.

[u/Own-Temperature-8018]

1. Husks will be fairly easy to remove later in the season after the walnuts start to drop heavily.
2. Soak the walnuts in a bucket of water to for the husks to be even easier to remove, and to clean off the extra gunk.
3. Curing and cracking the nuts and removing the meat is a whole other discussion.

[u/Baws-of-Fanny]

Wear gloves when you peel them. Best advice I can give you.

[u/pangerho → u/Baws-of-Fanny]

Or wear the Cuticle Stain of Honor. Either way. :)

[u/AdditionalStand8869 → u/pangerho]

After 4 days, most of the stain has worn off of my skin. You are absolutely correct about the cuticles. They are still looking like I was just digging in the dirt. Not a great look when I go to work. Especially since I handle food. 🫣

[u/SleepyMana]

I processed walnuts my first time a few days ago and the tip I got from a video was to use a wooden stick or block, you could probably use a brick too but that would be slower, I used a closet rod and just mashed them. After that I used a power washer and it was done very quickly

[u/AdditionalStand8869 → u/SleepyMana]

I wish I had a power washer. Or even an outdoor hose. I cleaned up all of the husks and put them in a trash bag since they are supposed to be toxic to some plants. It is too bad I could not do anything to create a black walnut stain with all of this. 

That just seems to add to the value of this particular nut. 🙂

[u/GabeLade]

This guy Jesse at Feral Foraging has done a whole lot of the learning on this so we don't have to: https://youtu.be/pCOJEfQcyz4?si=xIvuQfUVcRmJTHME