Yes, the "highly valuable walnut tree" discussion has finally made it to the Food board. Kitty and I have several nut trees on our property and we have decided to start harvesting them for use in baking and cooking. We have two large pecan trees that produce lots of nuts that the deer have been eating as fast as they hit the ground; several hickory trees, one Allegheny Chinquapin (small chestnut), and 1 medium sized "highly valuable walnut tree". This single walnut tree produces several thousand walnuts each season.
To minimize the effort in recovering these highly valuable nuts we recently invested in a couple of specialty tools. The first was a couple of nut picker-uppers :D that eliminate bending over and gathering nuts like our ancestors did. We have two sizes, one for black walnuts and one for hickory nuts & pecans. We also found what is considered the best manually operated nut cracker ever made, a 1930s C.E. POTTER Cast Iron Black Walnut Nut Cracker from Sapulpa, Oklahoma.
The video link shows the walnut picker-upper in action. And, maybe a future video will show Kitty making bread or even a fruit cake using these nuts. ;D
Walnut Season - YouTube (https://youtu.be/U1gtH6jsYwk)
Makes short work of walnut pick'n for sure. You're going to corner the walnut market down there. ;D
Since you like it for pecan picking, should work great with butternuts, same basic shape. ;)
Butternuts drying
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/11009/SD_butternuts_2009.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1253455943)
They also work well for harvesting acorns. A good friend uses his for his deer feeder in place of the more usual "bagged corn". It's a good idea none the less.
Seems this year was a bumper crop for walnuts here. You won't get rich selling them though. $0.25/lb for unshelled nuts.
I googled the Potter cracker. it's a rack gear similar design to mine pictured by Mike_Belden recently. Given it seems to be a collectable, mine is far cheaper and works well. I cracked a few hickory nuts for two grandkids to eat and it does walnuts, butternuts or hickory with ease. Picking the meats out is a bit more intensive to say the least. Walnuts are a huge variable in nut size even when a tree is very young the nuts can be huge. I have one high on a ridge that has un-hulled nuts larger than a baseball. Another walnut tree down on the pavement near our mailbox-that tree is twice the size of the ridge tree and has far more water as it's a creek edge yet smaller nuts, half the size of the ridge tree which has a hard life up the other than shelter from chestnut oaks nearby.
Cracking walnuts is easy compared to hickories!
Quote from: kantuckid on November 15, 2021, 09:13:22 AM
Cracking walnuts is easy compared to hickories!
You never tried butternuts, the hardest nut of all. :D
Butternut Cracking.AVI - YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PDj_T4mebE)