Walnuts Simple Preparations before Being Eaten

The flavorful nutmeats of the Black Walnuts always make people be willing to go to great pains to extract them although such extraction is tedious and messy.

The black walnuts are a tremendous source of food which by early September will easily be found scattered in the ground. Many young people may not appreciate the fact that walnuts are very nutritious but old timers who during their youth these was a great food source will easily agree that the walnuts are highly nutritious. It’s probably the laborious effort required to de-hull and extract the nutmeats from the shells that make many people shun this nuts. This nuts form inside thick green hulls that can have the size of a tennis ball, these is unlike hickory nuts which have seams that split open when the hickory nuts ripen. Thus because of being cased inside thick hulls the process of de-hulling walnuts is usually laborious. Or probably it’s the rich brown dye they produce which stains everything that makes many people not be interested in them.

Walnuts are simply harvested by picking them from the ground and placing them inside a bucket. They are routine and tend to fall particularly around the months of September and October when they can easily be found scattered in such places as parks. In some seasons they tend to be abundantly available and one should take advantage of these and collect as many walnuts as possible and store them for future use.

A fresh walnut will have a green hull and will produce a blonde nut upon being de-hulled. De-hulling is the process of removing the hull. The walnuts with brown and blackened hulls are the ones which bring problems as they produce a substance that looks like a shoe polish which stains everything when de-hulled. When de-hulling its advisable to wear rubber gloves and old clothes which are of no use as these stain are difficult to remove from clothing.

Also when de-hulling be selective and pick the green fresher looking walnuts to avoid lots of stains and nasty smelling smells. This happens for the case of some walnuts which are infested by Walnut husk maggot. They will be extra blackened and mushy in appearance and when de-hulled they will produce stinking smell and will tend to stain the clothes more. It’s also important to de-hull the nuts as soon as possible from the time when they are harvested. De-hulling the walnuts is the most important procedure when dealing with these nuts, Walnuts unlike hickory nuts are usually sealed inside the hull and these makes the whole procedure of de-hulling difficult. This procedure will last for about 15-20 minutes for a 5 gallon bucket if the de-hulling is done using a hammer. Never dispose your Walnuts hull in your compost, as they contain a chemical that will inhibit plant activity in your garden. After de- hulling the next step is washing, drying, curing, then shelling and finally storing.

Step 1: Washing

After de-hulling what one gets is black, tarry looking walnuts. These nuts here are unripe and will be hard to shell. But first they have to be washed for about four to five times using an outdoor hose pipe. They will produce pitch black water which has to be poured off safely. The walnuts won’t get clean but try to wash them so that they look relatively clean.

Step 2: Drying

After being washed the Walnuts should be placed in an old sheet, which is no longer in use, as they will stain the sheet badly and dried in the sun. During drying another sheet should also be used to cover the walnuts to prevent them from being eaten by squirrels.

Step 3: Curing

Curing helps to make the walnuts to come out of the shells easily. This involves storing the nuts for a period of about 6 weeks in shallow containers. Deep containers should not be used as they generate a moist heat that causes mold on the nuts and additionally producing a foul smell. Curing makes the nuts be capable of being stored for longer periods and makes the whole process of shelling easy. Once the nuts have been cured the nuts will simply be falling out of the shell when they are shattered. This is because the nut meats inside will have ripened and shrink and they will easily break loose.

Step 4: Shelling the Black walnuts

A hammer is ideal for this process; forget about the nut cracking devices sold in the market. These nuts are too hard for an ordinary nut cracker to crack them. Simply take a gallon of walnuts and spread them in a cement floor and crush them with the hammer. Then gather all your pieces consisting of nuts, broken shells and all debris to another work table. Once in the other work table dump all the debris and pile a result of the hammering in the floor. Then begin the sorting process. Sort the empty shells from the shells that still have nuts on them. These shells that still have nuts should be placed into a bucket. They will be another pile full of debris, dusts and bits of shell. These should be sieved through a wire mesh or strainer so as to shake away the dust from them. After the sieving, the pile would have been made clean. It thus will be easy to pick pieces of cleaner nuts that may be hidden in the rubble. One will be amazed to find out that this stage of sieving produces a good fraction of the finished nuts. It’s possible to yield 2 cups of nuts per hour in this whole process if you are working alone. If you are working with friends; about four friends, you may yield half a gallon of nuts per hour and the whole process of shelling will be made easier because of the fellowship.

Step 5: Storage

After the above processes the walnut is ready for use. To avoid rancidity it should be stored in a cool dark place or if possible in a freezer. However it will be of great aid to soak the nuts in salt brine and then dehydrating them. This will help neutralize enzyme inhibitors in the nuts, and make the nuts easily digestible. These whole processes of soaking the nuts involves for every four cups of walnuts soaking them in water mixed with two tsp of salt. This water should cover the walnuts entirely. After the walnuts have been soaked in these salty water they should be left in these water for 8 hours or overnight having been kept in a warm place.

After the 8 hours are complete:
a.) The nuts should be strained.
b.) Then they should be spread on a cookie sheet or put in a dehydrator.
c.) Once in the dehydrators they should be dried at 140 degrees Celsius for 12 hours until they are crisp and complete dry.
Walnuts are guaranteed to be a great delicious treat for anyone who hasn’t eaten them. In fact once you eat these nuts you will want more and more of it.