a handful of black walnuts ready for hulling

The first frost has descended upon the land and another activity stands ready to be penciled onto the already full outdoor calendar. As the days grow colder and the trees more vivid, it is time to go nuts. Actually, we are already citizens of that great mental state but we are actually referring to nut hunting.

October finds the widespread and varied assortment of Hoosier nut trees shedding their burden of treats for the outdoorsman who doesn’t mind a bit of tedious work. Include the entire family in the affair and you have the recipe for a fun and productive day spent together in the outdoors.

Indiana has several native nut trees. The most commonly found nuts are the hickory and black walnut, but butternuts and hazelnuts are sometimes encountered and highly coveted.

The black walnut is a common tree that any Hoosier outdoors enthusiast should be able to identify, especially where the green tennis-ball-sized husks litter the ground.

Hickory trees are found growing in the middle of lawns or in the deepest woods, often with squirrels dripping from every branch. The trees are straight-trunked and have a distinctive curling bark that gives them their common name: shagbark.

There are sixteen species of hickory tree in Indiana but not all of them produce edible nuts. Inedible is somewhat inaccurate; you can eat all hickory nuts but several species taste like soggy cigarette butts or industrial cleanser. This makes finding a tree that bears tasty nuts the biggest obstacle to those with a hankering for hickory nut brownies. Finding such a tree requires some trial-and-error, but the results are worth the occasional bout of gagging.

The butternut is difficult to find and is becoming increasingly rare due to a root disease that is slowly killing the trees throughout their range. Identification is no problem: the butternut simply looks like an elongated black walnut. If you have never eaten a butternut, the taste of the rich, oily nut is somewhat between the black walnut and the English walnut

Hazelnuts are borne on small bushes and usually found in fencerows but are sometimes used in landscaping. The nuts drop quickly and can be hard to find unless you happen to walk by while the green, beaked husks are still evident.

Gathering nuts is easy because the trees are so productive. The ground under a single large specimen will produce more nuts than most households will want to crack. Gathering is not the problem; processing the nuts is the tedious job. The first job is to remove the hull or protective outer layer before approaching the task of cracking the nuts.

Hulling black walnuts and butternuts is a messy procedure that stains any surface with an absolutely permanent brown dye. The easiest hulling technique is to wait until the hulls have partially rotted and are soft. You can wait until the hulls on the ground grow soft or store them in pails in your garage, depending on which is the most convenient method for you.

To clean the nuts, put on an old pair of boots and step on the hulls until the inner nut goes shooting out and can be picked up with a rubber-gloved hand. Just make sure that you are wearing old clothes.

The freshly hulled nuts should be rinsed to avoid staining problems during later processing. Remember that the wash water is a strong dye and weak vegetation killer but can also be used to bring nightcrawlers to the surface.

Hickory nuts are usually hulled at the tree by pulling the husks apart and placing the nuts in a bag. The only suggestion is to carry a small hammer or pair of pliers to sample the nutmeats of unknown trees.

Now that you have bags of cleaned nuts, you can keep them in the garage or attic for cracking at your leisure. Mesh onion or potato sacks are ideal for storage.

If you have the patience to gather a few pounds of hickory nuts, realize that many nuts will contain beetle larvae. A simple way to sort these is by putting the nuts in a bucket of water. The bad nuts float, while solid ones will sink. Don’t forget the grubs make superb ice-fishing bait.

Cracking nuts is a chore, no matter what secret technique or gizmo you use. Simply approach the task with a relaxed attitude and expectation that many nutmeats will be smashed to atoms under too-forceful blows. If the task is broken into many short sessions, gathering several quarts of nutmeats is not too much trouble.

Using the nuts shouldn’t prove difficult; the biggest problem is getting them into the kitchen without ‘sampling’ too many. I have noticed that nuts frequently vanish at our house before ever making it into baked goods. This disappearance is blamed on squirrels and unfortunately, my wife agrees.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites