Black Walnut Juglans nigra

I'd suspect the smell wasn't nice because it's not fresh any more, when fresh they have a nice soap / detergent scent.

Resin

i always thought the smell was reminiscent of limes ... somewhat.. kinda.. sorta .. lol

ken

I never see them down here where l live, but up in TN I saw them bouncing across the roads like tennis balls. ;) I'm sure they could do some damage to a vehicle.

Yes, I have a tree near me and that is what they are. I kind of like the smell. Very "forest" like smell to me .... Reminds me a bit of hickories.

Thanks for the replies, everyone. So this nut is edible, I guess? :)

So...

1) Do these nuts usually grow in the wild?

2) How does one crack them?

Black Walnuts are one of the primary trees in the eastern north american forests. They are related to the hickories (probably why the smell of the seeds reminded one of the posters of hickory!). They are gorgeous trees, large trees and the nuts are edible (id be careful still only because there might be some chemical spray). The wood is some of the best wood to use for carpentry as well.

The down side is, the produce a chemical called Jugalone, which kills/inhibits many types of plants from growing in the vacinity. This may be why they exist in some places and not others, as most people tend to just cut them down, due to the jugalone. There are ways around it, some are more work then others, but IMO, the tree is worth saving.

The other downside is removing the green outer husk from the nuts before cracking them. You'll get brown stains on your fingers from the husk juice, and it won't wash off - takes a week or two to fade.

Resin

What a shame that Thousand Cankers Disease is going to wipe out so many of these trees.

here in SE MI .. they litter miles of roadways ...

and that is how the nuts are usually opened .. lol.. peeps put them in the driveway.. and use the thousands of pounds of vehicle to open them ...

BW's have a very exotic taste ... most peeps do NOT like it ...

i would suggest a scale if there is ever another pic ... i looked at the pic.. and they looked dime sized to me ...

as resin said on the dye aspect.. i will note.. the Indians used it as such.. for a brown bye ... your fingers will remained stained for quite a while ... if you work with them a lot ...

the impact of jugulone is variable.. as to what will or will not grow under the tree ...

i think that is all the useless info i have ...

ken

Thanks again for all the helpful info, everyone!

Ken wrote:

i would suggest a scale if there is ever another pic ...

I appreciate your suggestion here, Ken, but do you honestly think anybody on this forum actually cares how much I weigh? I mean, couldn't I just e-mail you the latest reading instead? ;)

IIRC, the nuts were nearly the size of tennis balls. Much bigger than a dime.

Wish I remebered the particulars: My son until recently lived in Milwaukee, in a yard with some big black walnut trees. One of his erstwhile friends knew of a way to make "wine" out of black walnuts! Craziest derned thing I ever heard. Now I've put some fairly vile beverages to my lips in the pursuit of this or that outcome but I don't know that I could drink black walnut wine! I think he's still got a big jug of that stuff fermenting away.

On a related note, it seems to me, judging from some incredibly detailed maps of this state's original vegetation that I have to peruse, that the current commonality of this tree is something of a new development. Anybody able to speak to that-the origin and history of black walnut in the upper midwest? By the time you get to where my land is-roughly 60 miles N. of here, there are none, but the butternut is a fairly common component of the forest up there. They too of course are subject to that new canker malady.

+oM

"BW's have a very exotic taste ... most peeps do NOT like it ..."

You gotta be kidding me. Black walnuts are considered a real delicacy. They very well may be my favorite nut (at least for taste).

are considered a real delicacy.

==>> whenever you see these words in a food description.. be sure too understand.. that 90% of peeps would die before they ate them a second time ... lol ...

buried in a christmas fruit cake.. they might add an intriguing under-taste ... somewhat like the scent of the rind ... but this is not a nut.. most of us.. will be sitting there popping in our mouths while watching a football game .. [i said most of us.. i can picture brandon sitting there.. smeared in brown dye.. from his hairline to his belly.. grunting .... cheering on UTenn on new years day ... speaking in tongues.. while he figures out how to get more under the car tires.. w/o missing any of the game ... lol]

and no.. you dont need to provide your weight.. for opinion here .. lol ...

ken

I will add that they produce heavy crops in alternate years. I have a customer with a large tree that had very few nuts this year. Last year it had a huge crop. Its a lot of work to clean up in the heavy years.

Running over the nuts with cars may be a reasonable way to remove the husks - if you've got a gravel driveway, but running over them to crack them isn't very productive - if the shells do crack, the kernel will be essentially pulverized, and you'll have dirt, grit, and shell fragments permeating the kernel mush.
Ideally, you'd remove the husk material as soon as the nuts drop from the tree, and wash the nuts thoroughly to remove residual husk material. If you allow them to lie on the ground 'til the husk becomes black and gooey, it will stain the kernel and confer an undesirable flavor.
Cracking is best accomplished with a heavy-duty nutcracker designed for use on thick-shelled nuts like BWs and hickories, but a vise, or even a pair of vise-grip pliers will suffice. And yes, a hammer and anvil work, too, if you have none of the above.

ken, brandon won't be cheering on the UT Voles on New Year's Day - their poor performance was only surpassed by the dismal play of my Auburn Tigers and UK's Cayuts. WDE anyway, and GO CARDS & HILLTOPPERS!

I found the vise most effective.

Grated on a bowl of oatmeal with thin apple slices made me actually like eating oatmeal. I thought the nuts on their own were quite tasty as well.

tj

Ken, I am not kidding when I say that you are the first person I have ever heard that said they didn't like the taste of black walnuts. Maybe there are lots and lots of others that don't care for the taste, but you're the first one I've heard from. I buy black walnuts from the store these days (even though I have a bunch of black walnut trees that produce tons of nuts). I am not fond of the work required to prepare them myself. When I was a little kid, papaw used to crack them for me all the time. It was something I looked forward to every time I went over there. Black walnut icecream is pretty common: Even Herman Cain likes it (although he seems to have forgotten which brand...or something).

As for the Vols (and hopefully I won't be lynched by the locals for saying so), I've never been a fan. Even during my college years (I graduated from UT), I didn't care if they won, lost, or tied. Honestly, I'm just not a sports-fan period. I'm too busy hugging trees for football. LOL

Years ago black walnuts were a cash crop here. A lot of places had hulling machines, you brought your nuts, hulls and all, to be hulled and sacked. You were paid by the pound. It's my understanding that BLACK walnuts are one of the few true nuts that keep most of their flavor after cooking/baking. The flavor is rather strong with fresh nuts, it may mellow a little with age. I have several large bearing trees on my place. It is near impossible to mow under them as the nuts begin to fall in early autumn. I checked today as I want to do my last mowing of the season and as I thought, the tree rats have taken care of the problem for me. So the rats do have a use after all. One of the finer things in life I have partaken of is a maple walnut sundae made with black walnuts and real Vermont maple syrup, topped with real whipped cream. YUM!

This thread has become extremely informative thanks to all the great replies. Speaking of a vise, that's what I used to crack open one of the shells in the picture. I also use a vise to crack Brazil nuts.

well.. 2 guys from TN.. drooling over them..

is this a regional thing.. anyone else have found recollections of such ???

the only reason i know anything about using them.. was a friend in high school.. who parents were Canadian immigrants.. and they made their annual holiday walnut cake.. otherwise. in my entire life.. i have known no one else who ever ate one... not that i go around quizzing folks about it all.. lol ...

ken

Ken,
I like 'em and grow several of the 'improved' selections. Some are better than others. That said, no one else in my family likes them, and most folks in my circle find them too 'strong' for most tastes. Recently shared some with a co-worker who's from Germany(though she's been in the USA for over 20 years)- she'd never tasted them; "What's that chemical taste? Acetone." she said. I dunno, if I'm imbibing hydrocarbons, I like mine in the form of bourbon...
No, I wouldn't care to sit down and munch a bunch of 'em, like I do with pecans,pistachios, cashews, or peanuts(preferrably boiled, of course!) - but I do like them in stuff like banana nut bread or, of course, black walnut ice cream...

I made a jar of that immature black walnut liquor(nocino) this summer - have filtered it 2 or 3 times, still looks like stump water - but we're gonna drink it a Christmas(or, at least, *I* am).

Here is a link that might be useful: Nocino

"What's that chemical taste? Acetone."

===>>> now that made me laugh out loud.. and its been too long.. thx

was that bourbon quote .. more of her thoughts ...

who would have thought.. one would expect the black forest of germany .. to have black walnut ... if we lived in a literal world ...

ken

they apparently have hams hanging in the trees in the Black Forest .. why not black walnuts ...

maybe resin knows about this .. lol ...

ken

Here is a link that might be useful: link

No, ken; the bourbon is me: lots of fun, just add bourbon!

Frau K. thought the BW flavor was reminiscent of acetone. She prepared a nice rye bread with BWs that was well-accepted by the crew at the morning break table, and laer a nice sourdough loaf with BWs - but indicated that she did not care for any more BW nutmeats.

We put away eleven pounds of black walnut meats in our freezer last autumn. Not bothering this year, because as was already mentioned the work involved in getting to the meats. And we have enough nuts left to last until next year's harvest. The shells are actually a by-product and used as an abrasive.

We have a long-handled lever-type cracker to crack the shell open and it's still work. So's the meat-picking. But oh wow..........love them in breads and ice cream and cookies and cakes. Nobody is ambivalent about them. You either loves them or hates them.

Yuck for these dirty trees. Black Walnut trees have got to be some of the worst trees around. Yes the nuts can be very good to eat but its a nasty challenge to get to them. The nut itself is poisonus to many animals. The nuts do damage to homes like hail and the green color stains just about everything. If they only made them fruitless. Well that and a disease that has no cure called thousand canker disease.

Here is a link that might be useful: google maps page

arbordoc,
As a veterinary pathologist, I.m inclined to contest your claim that black walnut nuts are poisonous.
Yes, dogs which chew on moldy(husk-on) nuts can be sickened by a toxin produced by Penicillium molds which may grow in the husk material, and horses may develop laminitis if black walnut wood shavings are used as stall bedding - presumably, the juglone present in all parts of the tree is the offending substance.
Beyond those two specific instances, I'm unaware of any documented evidence that black walnut nuts, themselves, are toxic to any animal (or humans).
In over 30 years of veterinary practice and diagnostic pathology, I have never encountered a case of walnut toxicosis in any form - though I did find a nicely-polished black walnut in the gizzard of an ostrich, once.

As I understand it Black Walnut is native to river bottoms from S. Ontario all the way to Florida and westward to Texas, how does one dismiss the importance of such a tree? I have always found the nuts delicious and as we know they fetch a higher price than other walnuts.
Fox Grapes have no problem growing in walnut trees, I can certify to that, we collect Fox Grapes out of our BW's every August for juice & jelly.
Here's a thought, maybe the "peeps" that know so little about the natural world might make a pledge for 2013. How about taking the minivan for a spin, let's say outside of suburbia and actually learning something about trees that fall outside of the realm of commercial "product line" items.
Does BW have a big, showy flower on it? I don't know nor do I care. I can say it has been since colonial days a super important cabinetmaker's wood. Picture this cupboard made in something other than BW, it just wouldn't be the same:
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