Do you have any nut trees, but not sure what to do with the fruit? Here are the basic instructions for looking after your crop. Walnuts are excellent eaten plain or in a cake, even with meat or in many other recipes, even if only sprinkled as a decoration. Follow these directions to harvest your nuts and prepare them to be enjoyed.
Steps
Part 1 of 3: Collecting
Step 1. Collect fallen nuts
Some trees are so tall that getting nuts from their branches is impossible. Also, you could cause damage to the branches themselves so it's best to wait for the fruits to fall. Be sure to wear heavy gloves and not disposable ones.
Step 2. Remove the green husk
As it matures, the shell changes and goes from deep green to greenish-yellow. The liquid emitted from the nuts (oil) stains dark, so wear gloves or use tongs when handling shelled. Press on the skin with your thumbs, the mature ones will get incised. With a small knife you can cut around the husk and peel it, or you can put the walnuts on the driveway and drive over them! It is usually easier to squeeze them with your feet until the husk breaks, then pick them up and open them. Any method will work.
To easily separate the husk from the fruit, put the nuts in water. The fruit sinks, the husk floats
Step 3. Discard the husk
Walnuts contain Juglone, a compound that inhibits growth in many plant species. The juglone, inside the compost, degrades with exposure to heat, sunlight and air over a few weeks or even months. The compost mature derived from a well-structured and preserved harvest, it will be suitable for the most delicate crops such as solanaceae (tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, aubergines, etc.).
Step 4. Put the unshelled walnuts to dry
You can arrange them in a newspaper for a few days or longer. Some leave them for much longer. The more they dry, the easier it will be to remove the fruit. Place them in an area not accessible to squirrels. Don't leave them in plain sight. Squirrels might steal them if they find them.
Step 5. Use a hammer or a pair of pliers to open a nut
The pliers do not damage the fruit. If you don't have time to do this, then you shouldn't even collect them. You cannot rush this step or you will damage the fruit.
Step 6. Extract the fruit
If it is hard to remove, you can use an extractor, a tool that is used to lift the fruit from the shell and that is usually bought together with the nutcracker at parties, in grocery stores or household goods. If you want to use walnuts for the cake instead, it doesn't matter if you break them off. Indeed, almost better.
Step 7. Remove the shells as you like
Remember that they are hard and pointed, so don't leave them where someone might walk on them. Finely chopping them with a mixer, you could use them to clean brass. If you really have a lot of them, you can set them aside and burn them in the fireplace or wood stove.
Step 8. Eat your nuts or store them
The flavor changes depending on the species. In some nuts it is more intense than others.
Part 2 of 3: Remove the green husk with a drill or hammer
Step 1. Drill three holes and 3, 4, and 5cm bits in a 60cm board
Step 2. Place it on two concrete blocks and take a hammer with a rounded tip, insert the nut in the corresponding hole and hammer it until the husk breaks
Your hands will remain stained for days!
Part 3 of 3: Blanching the Green Shells
Step 1. Blanch the walnuts in boiling water for 30 seconds - 1 minute
Step 2. Squeeze the green skin and open the nut, wearing rubber gloves; you won't have to make any effort
Step 3. Once the walnuts are peeled, soak them in cold water to remove the heat from the shell
Step 4. Leave the walnuts to dry
Step 5. At this point, follow the previous instructions to break the flies
Advice
- Wear heavy gardening gloves! Walnut oil stains are awful. You'll have yellow fingers for quite a while otherwise!
- With hulls, you can dye furniture and give it an antique look. Soak them in a little rain water then heat it up - preferably outside because of the strong smell! You need to use a metal pot or add metal (nails or a piece of copper) as a mordant to make the color permanent. Let it cool then filter through a colander. Let the water evaporate for a darker brown. To give it an extra black tinge, soot was once added.
- Throwing hulls and leaves into compost is fine. According to some American studies [1], "Walnut leaves can be used in compost because the toxin decomposes when exposed to air and water. The toxic effect disappears in two to four weeks. In the soil it usually takes up to two months."
- Wear old clothes because any contact with the hulls will lead to permanent stains.
- To separate the walnuts from the leaves: Rake the leaves and walnuts into piles, place them in some trays and use a sieve.
Warnings
- Don't touch your eyes and mouth with gloves. The oil produced by the hulls is quite pungent and strong and could burn your eyes, and it could also be toxic if consumed. Picking walnuts is not a game for children.
- Do not use husks and leaves to mulch. Common walnuts, pecans, and hazelnuts contain juglone, which kills most garden plants.
- Do some research to check that nuts are not poisonous to your pets if you have any. If they do not cause them problems, let them touch them but not eat them, in doubt avoid them approaching them. You must always be sure that something does not harm them!
