Pee-can trees

[flowerbug]

Pecan are, maybe the hardest nut to remove from the shell intact ```

try black walnuts sometime... i picked some off the ground once, brought them home, tried various ways to get them done. ended up using a hammer and a nut pick. still took way too long for what i ended up with. now i am happy to buy them done for me. not many things like that, but this is one of them.

 

[thistlebloom]

Up north pee cans have a whole different meaning........not one I would want to eat...

Not from Texas-we call them pa cons. Some pe con.

Hahaha, I was thinking along those lines too but wouldn't have been the first to admit it.

Not from TX or IN and we say puh kahn.

 

[valley ranch]

Oooh. Black Walnuts are wonderful ~ have to break them with a hammer ~ but well worth it ```

 

[baymule]

My Daddy loved black walnuts and worked very hard at them. He gathered up the nuts and ran over them in the driveway to get the hulls off. Then he cracked them on an anvil with a small sledge hammer. He spent hours pick them out to get a cup full. Then Momma would make him a black walnut cake.

 

[valley ranch]

Nice ~~ Lord be with your Daddy ~~~~ and mine too ```

 

[Trish Stretton]

hehe, its the way you hit them with the hammer.
I found they open up quicker if you tap them around the 'seam'...and I often get a whole nut to boot.

 

[canesisters]

I just run over them in the driveway - opens them right up.

 

[flowerbug]

Oooh. Black Walnuts are wonderful ~ have to break them with a hammer ~ but well worth it ```

My Daddy loved black walnuts and worked very hard at them. He gathered up the nuts and ran over them in the driveway to get the hulls off. Then he cracked them on an anvil with a small sledge hammer. He spent hours pick them out to get a cup full. Then Momma would make him a black walnut cake.

once in a while there is black walnut ice cream at the store, but in a pinch you can just put them on vanilla ice-cream and call it great.

all of my favorite ice-creams have nuts in them, maple walnut, pistachio, butter PEE-con, black walnut...

i make black walnut cookies about once a year and they are my favorites.

i've never had black walnut cake.

it took me an hour and a half to get a cup and a half needed for the cookies i made. i had to eat a small bit from each nut to make sure they weren't rancid, but it saved a lot of work to be able to not shell those and then find out later.

i'm much happier to buy them at wally's world... a smack on the finger with the hammer convinced me it was really better to leave it to those who do it for a living or have the right machinery...

 

[Ridgerunner]

I use a vise instead of a hammer on Black Walnuts. That way the force is easier to control. It's still messy and I still don't get whole kernels but I prefer that to the hammer and anvil. As a kid I did use a hammer and used one of Mom's hairpins as a nut pick. We also put the black walnuts in the driveway to remove the green husks then let the nuts dry some before we ate them. I think they taste better if they cure.

Back in her Earth Mother days my sister-in-law was into natural dying. Black Walnut hulls were used for brown. I don't remember if she used pecans in any way for a natural dye.

 

[seedcorn]

Vice makes sense. I see some use a C clamp.