How to Prepare Black Walnuts

Fresh black walnuts from a tree in your backyard offer a tasty treat for the fall and winter months following harvest, but for those nuts to stay fresh, you need to prepare them correctly. Improperly done, hulling and drying the nuts could result in rancidity. Avoid some of the most common problems with preparing black walnuts by using the right technique.

Things You'll Need

• Black walnuts
• Cup (any size)
• Gloves
• Hammer
• Safety glasses
• Large bucket
• Water
• Handful of gravel
• Wire brush
• Water hose or sink
• Cloth bag or wire basket
• Nutcracker
• Airtight, resealable jar

Instructions

1. Choose mature black walnuts with a yellowish-green exterior. Press the nuts; the hulls should slightly give to pressure. Do not confuse the shell with the exterior hull. Remove the hulls, but leave the harder shell intact for storage.

2. Wearing gloves and safety glasses, use the hammer to break the hulls off of the walnuts, or lay the nuts onto a flat surface and stomp on the walnuts to loosen their hulls. Do not drive a car over the nuts, which could injure bystanders with flying debris.

3. Place 3 cups of walnuts into the bucket. Add 1 cup of water and a handful of gravel. Using a gloved hand, agitate this mixture to pull the hulls off of the walnuts. Repeat until all of the nuts have their hulls removed. Place hulls in the trash rather than a compost pile, as compounds in them are toxic to many garden plants. Use a wire brush to scrub away any small bits of hull still attached to the walnuts.

4. Rinse the hulled walnuts in a sink or with a garden hose. (Place a bowl or stopper in the bottom of a sink to prevent pieces of hull from clogging the drain. Empty the bucket used to remove the hulls, and place all of the walnuts inside. Fill the bucket with water. Discard any floating walnuts, as they most likely contain insects.

5. Lay the walnuts in a single layer in a cool, dry spot with good air circulation. Let them cure for 2 weeks. Place the cured walnuts into a cloth bag or wire basket, and store below 60 degrees F at 70 percent humidity for up to a year.

6. To prepare the walnuts for shelling, fill the bucket with hot water and soak the them for 24 hours. Change the water and soak for another 2 hours. Crack the soaked walnuts to remove the shell, using the nutcracker. Store the raw shelled walnuts in a resealable jar in the refrigerator for 9 months, or in the freezer for up to a year. Bake the shelled nuts for 10 to 15 minutes at 215 degrees F before storing at room temperature for 2 to 3 weeks in a jar.

Tips & Warnings

• Wear gloves while handling black walnuts to prevent juices in the hulls from staining your hands.

References

• Harvesting Black Walnuts
• How to Prepare Black Walnuts