Please tutor me on getting to the black walnut nutmeat efficiently! We have a lot of black walnut, but I have yet to find a good way to process without deciding I would rather starve! I did find and buy a black walnut nutcracker from Lehman's, but by that time I was done dealing with black walnuts and it hasn't been out of the box! What is your method?
Also, I read somewhere recently that black walnut tree sap makes a nice syrup. Have you ever tapped your black walnut tree's?
I feel like I have a potentially valuable commodity with these tree's, but aside from selling some to the Amish for their furniture making, I have yet to utilize their potential.
Walnuts…..
Your favorite hammer, carpenter or small/medium ballpeen.
Anvil, short chunk of railroad iron or hardwood stump….
My grampa’s old stump had an impressively uniform depression in the center from years of walnut cracking.
He’d fill quart jars for chrimmas presents to family members….
Anywho, strike first with the walnut held upright, straight down through the grain, but just hard enough to crack and not shatter;
Then turn it on its side and do the same, then another quarter turn and crack again, this time with intent to make pieces.
Practice practice practice
When you become proficient with that initial cracking process, the shell falls into several pieces at the last and a lot of the meat comes out in one piece. The rest is easily accessed with your nut pick.
Walnut syrup is said to be pretty tasty, but a lot of effort for a little.
I stick with maple.