Walnuts

[humdrum_hostage]

I have collected my first ever batch of walnuts from a neighbours tree about a week ago, there weren't many on the floor so I picked a few off the lower branches. I put them in our insulated shed on a wire tray and today one green husk was blackening so I put on my latex gloves to save my hands getting stained and split the rest of the green husks off to reveal the brown shells and cleaned and dried them off. I decided to crack one open to check the kernel inside and it was almost jelly like.

Does this mean I need to let them dry out or have they not grown and developed properly?

There are still some more on the tree as it is about 60 feet tall. But the main reason I picked some is because another neighbours tree has already dropped all of theirs but theirs is only about 30 foot.

Anyone got any walnut harvesting experience?

 

[Macaroon]

We've never picked them down this way, always await the fall, but I've never thought about it, it's just the way we were shown and have always done it so I can't shed any light on the whys and wherefores.

The only time I've seen them picked is earlier in the year when the immature ones are harvested for pickling, but I don't like them pickled.

 

[humdrum_hostage]

The only time I've seen them picked is earlier in the year when the immature ones are harvested for pickling, but I don't like them pickled.

Somebody told me when I asked if they are edible, that they are only good for pickling because they are soft but I am assuming that is just because they weren't dried out sufficiently?

 

[StJon]

In Wildwood by Roger Deakin, he visits the walnut harvest in Kyrgyzstan. He talks about the local climbing and shaking the trees, with the green tegument being picked from the forest floor. The green husk peeled to reveal the nutshell. These can then be opened and the, "wet walnuts" eaten with honey.
I pick them from the tree and cut the husk all the way round, as you would an avocado, pop one half off the nutshell and pop that out the other half. The wet nut can be a bit bitter, hence the honey, but left in the shell they mature. I find picking the brown dropped husks from the ground means that the nut is past its best and can even have maggots in them...
If you want to pick for pickling, you need to catch them before the shell has developed, if a pin can pass into the center of the tegument it means your good to go.

 

[santaman2000]

I can only guess that they're similar to pecans (the two are often substituted for each other in recipes) In the case of pecans, yes, you need to let them ripen and fall on their own. That said, it's only my guess that they're that similar.

 

[humdrum_hostage]

Thanks for your input guys. You just reminded me stjon, they called them wet walnuts.

It looked disgusting to be honest, like a shell of snot.