a tale of tails, tenacity, and tedium, as told by me, usually barefoot and bellowing

Saturday, September 26, 2015

Black Walnut Trees

Across the valley by the garden spring are several Black Walnut trees, in fact, there are many spread over the farm.  Picking up walnuts to sell was one of our childhood chances to make some money. Each year some one will have a walnut huller operating and will pay by the pound for Black Walnuts after they are hulled.
This is a Black Walnut by our house showing many walnuts still on the trees.  I left the corner of the roof so you can imagine how big the trees are.  This is one of the smaller trees.
These have fallen and are ready to pick up.
The way they look when they fall
and the color they turn
One without the hull but still in the shell.
First you remove the hull
then break it open with a rock or hammer
...they are a tough nut to crack...
and you get the wonderful "meat" or "goodies" to eat.
This is about half of a walnut's worth.  They can be used as any other nuts in cooking, baking, or just like this.  The hulls in water when changing from green to brown will make a wonderful "tea" to dye cloth with not to drink.  We also discovered a good strong tea will kill thistles.

Black Walnut wood is highly prized for furniture making and for gun stocks.  The living room here At The Farm is Black Walnut tongue and groove routed lumber varying in widths with almost an inch thickness. The shelves on each side of fire place and through out the house are made from Black Walnut.  All walnut in the farm house was harvested here, seasoned, milled, planed and routed for use in building this house.  It will never be painted nor removed.

Thanks to Lynne at Irish Garden House for suggesting this post.

16 comments:

Lynne said...

Thanks to you for the Black Walnut post . . .
What treasured walls, planks, ledges that must grace your home.
Plus milled, (is that the right word) by your family members.
As I had mentioned to you in a message, my father loved black walnut and had his home office designed in gorgeous black walnut. I have the day bed he slept in as a boy, restored for his office now here in my home with me.
Thanks again Gail . . .

eileeninmd said...

Hello, the black walnust wood sounds beautiful. I remember my grandmother used to make a delicious walnut cake, yum! I have seen many of those green balls on the ground around here, some in the street and the cars have to ride over them. Great post, enjoy your weekend!

Gorges Smythe said...

A lot of the walnuts around here aren't bearing too good this year. I think it may have rained too much during blossom time.

MadSnapper said...

I love walnuts, and i love the looks of these trees, they are beautiful and that is amazing to me to have all that wood that was milled from our own property and used in your home.. we had 3 pecan trees and our job was to pick up the nuts but we got no money, daddy sold them shelled. he build a cracker he could sit on and would crack piles of them and then mother picked the pecans out and bagged them for sale.. pecans are my favorites but walnuts are a close second. great post and i love all the photos.. feel like i am there with you.

christopher said...

I enjoy them after the turkey and trimmings on Thanksgiving day...

Lowcarb team member said...

That tree looks great and I love walnuts!

All the best Jan

gld said...

What a treasure;to have that beautiful wood in your house and to know it came from the farm.

We harvested the walnut trees a few years back and I don't know if we have any producing trees left.

Anonymous said...

We have these trees in our area. Some people dislike their "mess". I like them because they are strong trees and the critters love them. Mess? Nothing is messier than human beings.

Farm Girl said...

We did that too, we would collect them and someone would come by and buy all of them from my grandparents. Then the tree got old and someone came by and bought the tree. I love the trees I have from you that come from this stock. I think that is awesome to know the history of my little trees. I didn't know that about thistles. I am going to remember that when I finally get some black walnuts.

LindaG said...

My husband prefers walnuts to pecans when making pecan pie, haha.
I've read the trees grow up to a hundred or a hundred and twenty feet?
Safer than chestnuts anyway!
Your house will last for centuries. :-)
Blessings! ♥

TexWisGirl said...

really awesome.

Arkansas Patti said...

Hum, every year in the local paper there will be an add for free walnuts,"you pick up and haul off". Maybe I will go get a few this year. I heard they are a tough nut to crack but the reward may be worth it.

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Can't paint over quality wood!
At least there is a big payoff when you crack walnuts. Not so much when you crack a filbert. Or a sunflower seed.

Martha said...

Walnuts straight from the tree! YUMMY! I would love that.

Judy said...

We can't seem to find anyone in this area interested in walnuts...they keep falling and the squirrels enjoy them...

My Grandparents used to gather them; put in the driveway and drive over them; then they would gather them again, put in a trash can and over the winter, they would smash and pick walnuts...

Grandpa's hands (even with gloves) would be dyed black for months...Ahh memories...

Far Side of Fifty said...

We often use black walnut wood for bases of carvings, the wood is so pretty:)

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