The three methods in which walnuts are packed are: in-shell packed, bulk packed or retail packed. Ordinarily, the wind is the most helpful factor in sending walnuts to the ground, ready for picking by hand. When an order arrives, the walnuts are packed according to customer specifications. Keep in mind that walnut trees can grow to enormous proportions, and it is not uncommon for a tree to reach 80, even 100 feet! Generally it is wise to wait with cracking them until you are ready to use them, though sometimes you will want a snack that is ready to eat right now. With time the flavor will mellow, and become the walnut you know and love. When left on the soil/grass for too long, they are susceptible to mold during rainy and damp weather. If you have a mature walnut growing in your backyard, consider yourself lucky. After she thought the nuts were ready to eat. We were giving the incredibly boring job of cracking and picking out the inside meat of the walnut. Then she gave us another job to do. 7 Household Items To Sell For Extra Money, Essential Oils For Beginners 5 Easy Steps To Start Using Oils, 10 Fun Things To Bring To A Cabin -Free Printable Ultimate Cabin Trip Packing List, Buckets to carry the walnuts in and to dump on the driveway. Perhaps one of the best things about walnuts is that they will appear year after year, with little input from you. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. When walnuts arrive at the processor, they go into storage. Depending on where you live, the leaves of the walnut tree may already be turning yellow as they begin to drop their delicious nuts. If you’ve ever tried to remove the thick green husk from a black walnut then you probably know what a messy and hard job it can be not to mention the nice green stain that gets left on you skin, that will not wash off no matter how hard you scrub. California Agricultural Statistics Review: 2014-2015, Cal Coast Orchids - Growing Orchids in California, Harvesting Methods of Fruits & Vegetables, Corn Harvesting for Fresh Corn, Processing Corn & Corn Silage. Mine are not very pretty to put on a blog. The hull is often used to make an anti-bacterial black walnut tincture, as well as being a key ingredient in making homemade black walnut ink. Their land and their life’s work is aptly named ForestCreekMeadows. You’ll also want to store them in a protected (cool and dry) place, such as an attic. Your email address will not be published. lol! How To Store Tomatoes For Christmas Dinner. The hull is often used to make an anti-bacterial black walnut tincture, as well as being a key ingredient in making homemade black walnut ink. Cheryl Magyar is a sustainable life designer and environmental freelance writer with more than twenty years experience of living a simple life close to nature. I would like to thank Andersen and Sons Shelling, Inc. for the tour and for allowing the gathered content to be shared. We also used the car method. She is an avid organic gardener who can often be found eating nourishing “weeds” and making herbal infusions, just as she can be seen planting native trees to help others around the world to lower their carbon footprints. Good Tip Cinda! You may need to let your hand-harvested walnuts sit for a month or so to let them dry out further. Then she gave us another job to do. Black walnuts are native to America, and they have a thicker shell and a more potent flavor than the milder English ones. It’s available on Amazon here. We all thought she was crazy. In order to pass the CAPTCHA please enable JavaScript, Automated page speed optimizations for fast site performance. You can dry them outside on the ground in a single layer, so long as the sun is shining and nighttime temperatures are agreeable, though you may need to cover them with a plastic net to deter walnut scavenging birds. After harvesting, it is often suggested to wash the nuts and remove all dirt. Water expands as it freezes and so the shells will split open. After being shelled, the kernels are ran through another machine containing three lasers that sort by kernel color (the lighter colored kernels are the most lucrative) and remove any leftover shell particles. Haha, I know that was the only free commercial picture I could find. Store-bought nuts will pale by comparison in flavor, so look down at the ground and pick up a few nuts each and every time you go out on a walk. In recent years, the California nut industry has been growing. But turns out she was really smart. The texture crisp and rubbery. From early September to early November is the typical range of walnut harvesting – when the kernels are light in color and they begin to separate from their shells.