Black Walnuts

Black Walnuts on the Tree

 September in Pennsylvania (and most of the region) means it's black walnut season. Black walnuts are large, native trees with compound leaves and large, green nuts. Actually, the nuts are black but they are covered in a fleshy, green covering. Inside the black shell is a delicious little treat that people have been eating for eons. 

To be honest, black walnuts have a strong flavor and not everyone likes them but if you do, they are easy to find. If you are lucky enough to own some wooded property, then you probably already have at least one black walnut tree. If you don't, then you probably know some one who does. Or, you may find black walnut trees in public parks where the nuts feed the squirrels and make mowing difficult. You should always get permission before nutting on someone else's land but usually the owners won't mind at all. 

Nuts in general are very healthy but expensive in the stores so getting free nuts is worth a bit of effort. Fortunately, the effort does not go into picking as the trees are too tall to reach into and the nuts aren't ready till they fall to the ground. All you need is a bucket to go around and pick them off the ground. 

Black Walnuts after they've been shelled

To harvest these nuts, you need to remove that fleshy outer covering first. You can do this by hand, or follow my parents example and dump them out on a gravel drive way. Then just drive over them in the course of a few weeks and most of that layer will come off. Then, the hard part (pun intended), you'll need a hammer and a cement surface. Please learn from my mistake and don't do this on your kitchen table. Using a cement surface, smash the nuts with a hammer and then fish out the delicious nuts from the inside, being careful to separate out any hard, sharp pieces of the black shell. Then you can simply store them in a dry area till you want to eat them. 

I think black walnuts lend themselves best to more savory dishes like breads and oatmeal but you can use them in just about anything you would use other nuts for. Do you like eating black walnuts? Feel free to share your recipes in the comment section below.