Hands up who being collecting walnuts, ahh yes, are they going to still be black by Christmas, because mine are.
We found four trees of walnuts that had dropped their fruit after the hurricane, so will filled two rucksacks and the bike paniers up. The outer shells contain phenols and smell lovely, they also if you have never come across them stain everything. I am not talking something that is difficult to wash off or out, it dyes stuff permanently. My hands started off a delicate shade of trump have now turned coal miner black, they stay this colour for serveral weeks. I also found out the dye comes through marigolds, the slurry hurts when it gets in your eyes and don't pour it on the lawn. I say this as someone that doesn't wear PPE for making soap or sanding, you need eye googles and thick black cow gloves, you also need to wear old clothes or black. There are several youtube videos of americans shelling black walnuts, none of them do it indoors. Black walnuts appear to shell easier than English, but other wise they are pretty much the same.
https://flic.kr/p/Zymts3
The fruit are round smooth green tennis ball size, I would put a picture up, but I haven't set up hosting account to replace photobucket yet. The husks can be removed by several methods. They can be run over with a car, or stepped on. They be put in cement mixer with gravel and some water. We just cut the husks off, with a knife and then removed what was left on the nut by agitating first in a wheelbarrow with gravel (like you would mix cement) and then in a bucket with a stick with lump on the end. The nuts are clean when they are yellow.
The slurry in the wheelbarrow I used to dye a towel dull brown. I didn't use a mordent, just left the towel in there to see what colour it turned and fast it was. I made the mistake of pouring the slurry on to grass, it has chemical that suppresses growth and germination in other plants. My lawn isn't bowling green, it is work space for putting up tents and painting bit items, but the area I poured it doesn't look happy. The rest of slurry I poured on the path to keep the weeds down in the gaps between slabs. It doesn't appear to dye concrete, but that isn't a guarantee.
Once the shells are pretty much clean they need drying below 40c, and keeping dry for at least six weeks. This enables the nut meat to come away from the shell. They store for up a year in the shell.
I was going to write a tutorial, but I cant post a pictures, here is a blog post I wrote in the mean time. https://stupidlysimplelife.blogspot.co.uk/https://stupidlysimplelife.blogspot.co.uk/
We found four trees of walnuts that had dropped their fruit after the hurricane, so will filled two rucksacks and the bike paniers up. The outer shells contain phenols and smell lovely, they also if you have never come across them stain everything. I am not talking something that is difficult to wash off or out, it dyes stuff permanently. My hands started off a delicate shade of trump have now turned coal miner black, they stay this colour for serveral weeks. I also found out the dye comes through marigolds, the slurry hurts when it gets in your eyes and don't pour it on the lawn. I say this as someone that doesn't wear PPE for making soap or sanding, you need eye googles and thick black cow gloves, you also need to wear old clothes or black. There are several youtube videos of americans shelling black walnuts, none of them do it indoors. Black walnuts appear to shell easier than English, but other wise they are pretty much the same.
https://flic.kr/p/Zymts3
The fruit are round smooth green tennis ball size, I would put a picture up, but I haven't set up hosting account to replace photobucket yet. The husks can be removed by several methods. They can be run over with a car, or stepped on. They be put in cement mixer with gravel and some water. We just cut the husks off, with a knife and then removed what was left on the nut by agitating first in a wheelbarrow with gravel (like you would mix cement) and then in a bucket with a stick with lump on the end. The nuts are clean when they are yellow.
The slurry in the wheelbarrow I used to dye a towel dull brown. I didn't use a mordent, just left the towel in there to see what colour it turned and fast it was. I made the mistake of pouring the slurry on to grass, it has chemical that suppresses growth and germination in other plants. My lawn isn't bowling green, it is work space for putting up tents and painting bit items, but the area I poured it doesn't look happy. The rest of slurry I poured on the path to keep the weeds down in the gaps between slabs. It doesn't appear to dye concrete, but that isn't a guarantee.
Once the shells are pretty much clean they need drying below 40c, and keeping dry for at least six weeks. This enables the nut meat to come away from the shell. They store for up a year in the shell.
I was going to write a tutorial, but I cant post a pictures, here is a blog post I wrote in the mean time. https://stupidlysimplelife.blogspot.co.uk/https://stupidlysimplelife.blogspot.co.uk/
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