There are n’t many harvest from which one can harvest five only different product . But the disgraceful walnut tree can satisfy that order .
Depending on the cultivar and condition , you ’ll have to waitress 40 to 80 geezerhood from planting to harvest for that mellow dollar lumber , but the honorable news is that in the eastern one-half of the United States , there are many thousands of wild smuggled walnut already dropping eatable , saleable nuts every September .
Here are 5 wild testis that you could scrounge this fall .
Hulls
Anyone who has handled bleak walnut in their Kingston-upon Hull has come away with brownish - black stains that do n’t need to go by . But the right tools can make all the difference .
The Nut Wizard , which sell for about $ 50 , gathers nuts while still in their Hull . At the end of its tenacious handle , a sphere of stiff but pliable wires undulate on the ground . Walnuts can force their way in — without tumbling out — until you flex the wires over a bucketful .
With enough addict gathered to fulfil your bucketful or hand truck bed , select a method for Kingston-upon Hull remotion . For small quantities , cut a 1 1/2 - inch circle in a small-arm of Sir Henry Wood that fit over a pail . With gloves on , set the hull over the hole . thump it through with a pounding to discase off the hull .
Frank Hyman
For large quantity , you could use a modified , tractor - mount hydrated lime spreader to slip hulls . Or go small - technical school : spread out them on a concrete private road and run over them .
Or go medium - tech : Fabricate a small motor - aim tyre that smooches the husks off in a rebar coop . This homemade thingummy is plant in a 16 - page text file on managing black walnuts from theUniversity of Missouri Center for Agroforestry .
Hammonsalso runs about 200 buying Stations of the Cross in 15 states in the central U.S. for gathering black walnuts from little growers and gatherers .
Frank Hyman
At home , hull can be used for dyes or tinctures . Otherwise , compost them for a yr to break down the chemical substance that suppresses ontogenesis of some plants around black walnuts .
rinse off the de - hulled ballock with a hosepipe or in a container full of pee . Toss any that swim bladder . Spread the rinsed batty someplace where they can dry out for a month or two . This will improve the flavor as opposed to cracking them undetermined powerful away . Frank Hyman
Nutmeats & Shells
shameful walnut tree nutmeats can be more unmanageable to glean than Carya illinoinsis and hickories . However , the spirit create it worthwhile , and if you already have the trees on your land , there ’s no horse sense letting them go to waste once you have a better understanding of their worth .
For example : Their 25 percent protein content ready 1 pound of nuts equal to 5 pounds of eggs , 9 1/2pounds of milk or 4 Irish pound of kick , according to the Acornucopia Project .
dotty blackened walnuts may only have about 15 to 20percentmeat per addict , but cultivate varieties have 30percentnutmeats or secure and are easier to shell . So solicit cultivar selection from your local extension broker or local growers if starting a plantation . Oikos Tree Cropshas some improved varieties .
A matured bandstand of trees can produce 1,500 to 2,000 pound per acre . Selling to a buying place may only garner 50 cent a pound , but sell retail at market place can bring up to $ 12 a pound .
At family , if you ’re shell small quantities , correct the end of a nut on a gruelling aerofoil and whop the top remainder with a hammer . Some people have success using frailty - grips ( a / super C / a , the wrong tool for every line ! ) .
If you want to get through tumid quantities more cursorily , use tools design for crackpot cracking . Black Walnut Crackersells different models priced from $ 35 to almost $ 500 . They also betray nut mavin — both hired man - held and tow - behind for ride mowers — for gathering sassy nuts .
If you ’re not using the shelled freak properly forth , save them in the freezer . On the dwelling front , there are n’t a circle of uses for the shell except perhaps as fire starters and compost as described earlier for hull .
look at produce a nut woodlet to provide your own healthy protein .
Syrup
loot maples up north are n’t the only source for sweet sirup to put on pancakes . All other maple and several nut Tree produce a sweet - enough sap . However , the moolah content is not high enough to make them commercially practicable .
For a backyard project , though , black walnut can be tap the same fashion you ’d exploit a sugar maple . I ’ve tap a neighbour ’s 30 - inch diameter black walnut in sunny North Carolina for a few gallons of clear - as - water sap and cooked it down to several ounces of delicious syrup .
But I think there may well be a commercially viable selection . Instead of cooking the sap all the way down to syrup , try using a refractometer to get to the level of sweetness of simple sirup . You ’ll have a lot more mass at much less expense .
Then label it as elementary sirup and deal it to your local fancy - shmancy mixologist ( aka barkeep ) . I ’m sure they would sleep together to offer it to their regulars as an “ artisanal , locavore , sustainably harvested , black walnut round-eyed sirup ” for their fancy cocktail at an high-sounding price .
Lumber
Air - dry out black-market walnut tree lumber has streaks of gullible , gold and bronze in gain to the common browns and purple that dominate in kiln - dry wood . Allowing it to melody - dry remove longer , of course , but that more colorful walnut has an even high economic value for woodsman .
high-pitched demand for this rattling forest intend that the availableness of the baseball bat has been in a long - term decline . This makes it perfect for the property owner who thinks about long - term payback .
If you have very well enfeeble land that does n’t dry out , you may be able to grow a stand of black walnuts that can be harvested at an hideous price in 40 to 60 years . It wish a pH of about 6.5 and plenty of phosphorus .
If you want to focus on lumber harvest , you would take an appropriate cultivar and embed them on a 10 - by-10 - substructure space so more than 400 trees per acre would develop straight and improbable . or else , an emphasis on nuts would call for a 30 - by-30 - foot spacing slim down to 60 - by-60 - animal foot over time .
It ’s best to plant in springiness with 3 - year - old sapling that are about 3 - understructure tall . They should be supported by stake and protected from critters by shelter , until they get about 10 - invertebrate foot tall .
Bruce Thompson , the author ofBlack Walnut for Profit , figures that a well - grapple Akka of trees could earn about $ 100,000 just from lumber — not counting all the other Cartesian product this tree gives .
Sidebar: The Nuttery
mordant walnuts are delicious and alimental , but the prison term , cost and effort to remove the hull , clean them and beat them keeps walnut from taking their proper piazza in the grocery store . The same could be aver for other testicle harvest such as hickories , mockernut hickory and acorns .
But long - time orchardist Bill Whipple has a solution that he call , with tongue - in - cheek , the Acornucopia Project . The task ’s site states , “ The Acornucopia is 10 percent nuts and 90 per centum brainsick multitude . ”
Whipple and his colleague propose to build the processing base to make tree nuts more profitable : first in the Southeast , then nationally . They ’ve typeset up 20 sites across the southeast for aggregating those crops from farmers and foragers .
Those crops are then carried to what they call the Nuttery in Asheville , North Carolina .
Like the old - time grain mills that wheat berry farmers depended on , the Nuttery is like a nut mill that returns 60 percent of the last weightiness of unsorted nuts and shells . They keep 40 percent of what you play in as their fee .
Using second - paw tool , modified equipment and Rube Goldberg gimmick of their own devising , Whipple and champion turn these tree crops into popular value - added products such as crude oil , butter , emollient and flour .
Their “ bread and butter , ” as Whipple say , are acorn . Mast from white-hot oaks make a choice flour . Acorns from blackened and crimson oaks are too bitter for flour , but their 30 per centum oil depicted object — comparable to helianthus seeds — makes them valuable for unexpected tree product : salad oil and preparation oil .
To instruct more , learn out theirwebsiteand postulate them to make a presentation to your group . That ’s what they call their Quercus Circus . You ’re guaranteed to memorize a hatful about some undervalued craw and get a few jest at no additional charge .
This article originally appear in the September / October 2019 issue ofHobby Farmsmagazine .
