Dear Family & Friends,
Remember the walnuts we harvested from our lone tree somewhere else? Well, I needed to process them but was not sure how I can get the nuts out using the best technique.
I had a few days to think about it, while leaving and spreading the walnuts on the pavement to dry. Yes, they immediately turned black.
By this time, I researched how to best get the nuts out without much mess. Some suggested to ran tractors over it to crack them up. Others use powerful electric jet sprayer. As I don't have a tractor, nor do I have a jet sprayer...I have to use my own hands. Walnut stains. One must wear gloves...but I hate wearing gloves while working!!
I definitely don't want a stained hands for weeks...So, what I did was to get my trusty metal trowel that I use for gardening, and started bashing up the blackened walnuts on the pavement. BASH, BASH BASH! This exposed the nut shell. I did all this without touching them...so no stain! but our pavement was covered in black stain...ah...no worry it will wash away soon;P
Then, after sorting the nutshell from the outer skin, which is full of staining stuff, (still using my metal trowel to sort them out:)... I got my walnuts in shell! We have a nut cracker, but I find the unsophisticated hammer more convinient in cracking the shell...by bashing it gently, I was able to get walnut in whole piece:)
I bagged and froze them till I'm ready to use them for baking with cakes or bread later on.
How do you shell your walnuts? Would love to hear how I could do it better...
Yours
This is so interesting. I enjoyed it. I really didn't know what 'original' looks like. Love walnuts!
ReplyDeleteHi Annie, thanks for sharing this on the Homestead Barn hop, I always like to see wild edible posts. I am not a huge black walnut fan, but I do forage for them sometimes, though I'm more interested in hickory nuts. For all of those difficult to shell nuts, I use a Hardshell Nutcracker. It is expensive, but I think worth it, if you do a lot of foraging. You can check it out at Nativenuts.com.
ReplyDeleteDo you like the flavor of black walnuts raw? I don't like them unless they are toasted, which mellows the flavor somewhat. I describe this in my recipe for black walnut ice cream - check it out on my blog if interested.
...One thing I learned that is worth mentioning: the longer you leave black walnuts in fully ripened husks, the more bitter the nuts become. Apparently the bitter tannins are in the husk, and the nut can absorb some if them if left in the husk for a long time.
ReplyDeleteNippon Nin, CQUEK, Im glad that we're able to learn from each other thru blogging...I do enjoy peeping your blog post because I also profit everytime from you:)
ReplyDeleteJanet Pesaturo: Thank you for your comment and visit. It's encouraging to know a bit more about walnut via your shared comment...we never had raw walnuts to deal with till we moved to Bulgaria...so there's still a lot to understand:)
That's very interesting, now I know what fresh walnuts look like, thanks for sharing.
ReplyDelete