Hickory nut question

[SLFarmMI]

DH and I have discovered a hickory nut that is producing in our woods. It has already dropped a few nuts on the ground. They are covered with a green husk. So my question is, do you strip the husk off like you do with black walnuts and then process the nuts or do you wait for the husk to dry and then take it off? Also, DH says they taste like pecans (I've never had a hickory so I don't know). Do you use them in the same recipes you would use pecans? Thanks for any help you can give me.

[jwal10]

Yes, yes and yes. But....pick them up as they drop, if there are squirrels they help the harvest along. I share and eat both. Those dead limbs make great smoking wood, mighty tasty squirrels....James

[JLMissouri]

The squirrels get the majority of mine. It seems the majority of the ones on the ground on my place are bad, the squirrels can tell and drop them. I have quite a few mature hickory trees but get very little nuts, but I guess I could have plenty of squirrel if I wanted to.

They taste very similar to pecan but are much harder to crack. The two trees are closely related and they even cross/graft them to produce a hickon.

You can use them for anything you would use pecans for, and if you wait for the husk to dry it usually splits and comes off pretty easy like a pecan. Great nuts, if they were easier to crack they would be used a lot more.

[Harry Chickpea]

They aren't usually worth the effort. Some may have worms, and has been mentioned, they are hard to crack. I've seen where some have made a cracker where side pieces of wood around the nut that are just a bit shorter than the nut allows the person to really take a good whack at the shell and not pulverize it. What the nuts are really good for is slingshot ammo.

[oldasrocks]

We have bushels of them on the ground. I gave up trying to pick out enough meat to make harvesting them worthwhile. They do have a good flavor though.

[Sawmill Jim]

The scaly bark tress usually have the biggest nuts

[geo in mi]

I think you'll find that the early drops have worms which caused them to loosen and fall. You might want to rake them up every few days until you find new ones that aren't wormy. Keep them dry in wooden baskets (to help absorb moisture) and soon enough the green shells should loosen. My hickories are so small they aren't worth the efforts for no more than you get.

geo

[SLFarmMI]

Thanks everybody. Will set them to dry to get the hulls off. Hard to crack doesn't scare me. If I can crack black walnuts, hickories should be no problem.

[Badger]

Originally Posted by SLFarmMI

If I can crack black walnuts, hickories should be no problem.

Post back on this thread in a month and see if you still feel the same! LOL

I use a bench vice to crack mine, I collect several hundred pounds a year, I use the husks for mulch on my azaleas and roses, Most of the nuts I use for driveway gravel.

[badlander]

I tired to crack one....once. That was enough for me. The silly thing made me glad I'm allergic to tree nuts. We have hundreds of producing hickory trees. IMHO their best purpose on earth is as firewood, and the nuts as squirrel food.

[Fla Gal]

Maybe this article from Mother Earth News might help you with cracking the nuts. According to the author there is a "Bull-eye" you hit and that makes the nut crack in a manner that makes it easier. I've never had the opportunity to try it so I can say one way or the other.

http://www.motherearthnews.com/real-...#axzz3C06EpSeK

[jwal10]

I put them in shallow wood tray and put in the rafters of my shop to dry. I have a block of wood carved out so the mallet is allowed to only crack so far, it does not mash the nut. One good strike with a wooden mallet and they are good to go, not hard at all. Some of the sweetest nuts around here. More mellow than English walnuts even. I can "mash" a 5 gallon bucket in 15 minutes and pick in an hour....James

[suitcase_sally]

Originally Posted by Sawmill Jim

The scaly bark tress usually have the biggest nuts

Those are called "Shagbark Hickories".

[badlander]

Originally Posted by suitcase_sally

Those are called "Shagbark Hickories".

Fantastic firewood. One of the highest BTU producers. I love the shag bark as tender to get a good fire going.

[SLFarmMI]

Originally Posted by Badger

Post back on this thread in a month and see if you still feel the same! LOL

I use a bench vice to crack mine, I collect several hundred pounds a year, I use the husks for mulch on my azaleas and roses, Most of the nuts I use for driveway gravel.

Ha! Never underestimate a stubborn and determined Michigander. I WILL get into those nuts. I used a hammer, railroad tie and pvc pipe set up to crack the black walnuts. Will probably use the same for the hickories. Will check out the site posted earlier for some tips.

[Mike in Ohio]

The hulls should easily split into four pieces, so in that respect they are easier to hull than Black Walnuts.

Once you remove the hulls you should check the shells for a small hole in them. Any with a hole are bad and should be discarded as that means there is/was a larvae (not sure what kind of moth).

Then take any of the remainder and freeze them for at least a few days but preferably a week to make sure any remaining larvae are killed. Remove the amount of nuts you plan on cracking and let warm to room temperature. You'll still find a few nuts with dead larvae.

After that you should be in good shape to crack them and pick the nut meats out at your leisure. We put the nut meats in a baggy and put them back in the freezer.

We mostly produce Black Walnuts, Butternuts and Chestnuts so any Hickory nuts we do are usually for ourselves. We don't find it economical to do them for sale.

Hope this helps.

Mike

[Rick]

We gather severall gallons every few years, when the tree behind the shed produces so many that the fallen nuts make our walk paths treacherous.

We enjoy they flavor when time permits, but they have two other values.

1 - Simple emergency food storage in gallon glass jars where they keep for 4 or 5 years.

2- When he makes the 7 hour trip, Grandson Jacob loves to crack them for hours on our "Get Crackin" Nut Cracker.

He calls his Company "Jake's Tiny Nut Company"

Priceless!

[Jolly]

Another use for the hulls is to soak them and use them for smoking. Works for pecan hulls, too.

[SueMc]

I may crack enough for ONE hickory nut pie per year. I also crack mine with the bench vise but be careful and cover the nut with a towel or something. The flying shells will put an eye out faster than a Red Ryder BB gun. I don't have many shagbark hickories on my property so spend some quality Fall days walking all over the property with a metal fence post and bag of nuts. I hike, make a hole here and there with the fencepost and drop a nut in. Makes me feel like I'm doing something good for the future wildlife.

[NELSELGNE]

Shagbark and the larger Shellbark hickories are the best tasting of the hickory family. Mockernut, Pignut and Bitternut are some of the eleven less tasty hickory varieties, in the United States.