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Related: Culture Forums, Support ForumsMy sweet little 87 year old mother, the crack addict.
She's been pleading with me to be her supplier for the past few months.
She says she needs it, every day. Spends all of her spare time doing it.
I come home from work, and she asks me if I can hook her up with more.
I get up in the morning, and she's gone through what I gave her and wants me to get more ready for her before I leave.
She's somewhere near 100 lbs now, since November.
I'm talking about black walnuts here, people. I crack them in the electric nut cracker, and then she sits there and separates the shells from the nutmeats. Together, we've put close to 100 lbs of nutmeats in the freezer since early November. We're about 2/3rds of the way through the 2011 crop.
What did you THINK I was talking about? Geesh!
siligut
(12,272 posts)I think I had black walnuts as a kid. They are denser, sweeter and nuttier than regular walnuts, IIRC.
Denninmi
(6,581 posts)We parcel them out to my sisters, my niece, a couple of uncles/aunts, and a couple of neighbors. We've already doled out about 35-40 lbs of them, and will distribute the rest as we see people this spring.
We'll only keep about 15 lbs for ourselves.
Sure are nice to have, though. I use them in a lot of things, from baking to trail mix to coating on fried chicken.
siligut
(12,272 posts)They were delicious. I wouldn't think to coat chicken with them, but I have seen that done on Top Chef with other nuts.
handmade34
(22,757 posts)I get it... spent hours with my mother, years ago, cracking black walnuts yummmm
OriginalGeek
(12,132 posts)I read the whole thing and can only think that "nutmeats" should be a phrase of the day with which one should alter a thread title.
I'll be saying "nutmeats" in my head for hours and probably out loud once I am gone from work.
I can tell you in advance, my wife does not thank you.
csziggy
(34,137 posts)When we bought this farm there were two mature black walnut trees on it. The first fall I went out and picked up several feed sacks full of black walnuts. We put the bags in the driveway and ran over them for a few days to break the husks off.
Then I tried to crack the nuts. The first nutcracker I broke, it almost killed me. It was one of those lever types and I was leaning on the handle for all I was worth. When the handle broke, I nearly crushed my temple on the corner of the coffee table.
I bought a second, heavier duty lever type and more cautiously tried to apply pressure. At least when the handle on that one broke I was ready and didn't get hurt.
Since then the wildlife gets the nuts - I don't think they can get into them either, but they bury them all over the place and we have a lot of black walnut trees getting to nut bearing age now along the fence rows.
So I could use recommendations for a nut cracker that can handle black walnuts!
Petrushka
(3,709 posts)Denninmi
(6,581 posts)Totally AWESOME. Easiest way I've found to crack black walnuts. Pricey but so worth it. I previously bought a Clark's Electric Black Walnut Cracker, which is manual feed, ie, one at a time, and you hold it under the anvil.
This new Drill Cracker has a hopper, you can feed them in several at a time. It was also totally awesome on nuts from the store, everything except for Brazil Nuts, which it mangled (I think due to highly irregular shape).
This was our household Christmas gift to ourselves this year:
http://drill-cracker.com/
csziggy
(34,137 posts)Maybe one of their hard shell Nutcracker would do the job for us. I wish there were reviews of it.
Irishonly
(3,344 posts)I am jealous
trueblue2007
(17,238 posts)Irishonly
(3,344 posts)I was raised in Iowa and they grew there. I order them online now.
pacalo
(24,721 posts)Good one! And I'm so RELIEVED.
Grantuspeace
(873 posts)We tried eating the nuts a while back and they tasted terrible. How do you "process" them?
Arkansas Granny
(31,529 posts)They are really a hassle to crack and pick out, however.
HopeHoops
(47,675 posts)Sorry, but that's just what came to mind first.
I know, I'm a pig.