12/20/2021
Did you buy a bag of mixed nuts for the holidays? If so, it probably has walnuts in it. Those walnuts in the bag, however, probably aren’t our native Black Walnuts (Juglans nigra). Instead, they’re English Walnuts (J. regia).
English Walnuts are native to Eurasia where they’re grown in orchards for their delicious nuts. The nuts are sweet and easy to harvest from the relatively thin, light brown shell.
Black Walnuts are native to the Eastern United States and they’re not grown in orchards. Rather, you’ll find them in woodlands and where they’ve been planted around homesteads. The trees like moist, fertile soil and sunshine. Black walnuts are expensive to purchase given that most of them are collected by hand from woodlands or yards in early autumn. They have an extremely hard black shell and it’s often time consuming to pick the nut out of the shell. Black Walnuts have a bold, slightly metallic, and Earthy flavor that’s quite different from English Walnuts. As a kid, I collected the large, green husked Black Walnuts on the farm in early autumn and then cracked them open during the winter with a nut cracker or hammer. Black Walnuts can be eaten alone or used in a variety of recipes for cookies, breads, and pies.
Have you ever harvested Black Walnuts or learned the hard way that the husks stain your hands and clothes?
