I cracked the last of my black walnuts I foraged 2 years ago. There were only a few that had spoiled, which is pretty amazing. We root cellared them. Its a great fat that can be saved for a really long time without a lot of preservation.
I bought a black walnut cracker this year, which has changed the game. Previously I used a hammer and towel. This amount would have taken about 2 hours. With the cracker, it took me 40 minutes.
Right now, it’s black walnut season in NE Tennessee! So many people happy to give them away, as they are a nuisance to most people. We pulled about 50 gallons of the nuts so far, but are looking for more spots around us that have good sized nuts.
What are some ways we can incorporate foraging meaningfully into life? That’s the question I’ve been looking to answer. We’ve foraged a lot, but I’ve struggled to figure out how to meaningfully bring it into my families diet.
EDIT: Added a terrible pic of the black walnut cracker. The one I bought is the Grandpa’s Goody Getter. I also bought the other anvils, so this should be able to crack just about any nut I can find.
We used to have a tree, and man those things were a pain to crack. How does the cracker work?
It’s the grandpa’s goody getter. I was skeptical at first, cause I saw it in an endorsement from the youtuber Feral Foraging.
It’s pretty amazing, mechanically speaking. It has an upper and lower jaw that hold the nut. I haven’t figured out there details, but the system is able to size for the individual nut, so the power gets delivered when it meets resistance. It cracks the nut along the central pillar, and then somehow doesn’t release all the pressure by smashing the cracked nut.
It was expensive, but I plan on sharing it with several other foragers so more people can get use out of it.
That’s awesome. Would have been very useful when I young.