Macadamia Nut Cracker: The Drill Cracker

If you are looking for a Macadamia nut cracking tool that can crack nuts by the bucket full, look no further than the Drill Cracker. It is one efficient nut cracking machine that can fill up a five gallon bucket of macadamia nuts in five minutes. All you need to know to put this speed in perspective, is that the Drill Cracker is the fastest macadamia and hard nut shell cracker on the market for residential use.

All you need to use the Drill Cracker is a 1/4" or 3/4" drill and a bucket. If you have more than 5 gallons of nuts, you might want to get a few buckets because the Drill Cracker is going to crack those nuts very fast. And it cracks the nut shells without shattering the nut meat. 

Now if you do not need the speed and power of the Drill Cracker, there are other nut cracking tools on the market, including the Macadamia Nut Cracker. This nut cracking tool is not nearly as fast as the Drill Cracker but it is considerably less expensive and it reliably cracks Macadamia nuts.

So regardless of your nut cracking budget, there is a reliable nut cracking tool out there for you.

English Walnut Picker Upper: The Holt's Nut Wizard

Almost everyone loves harvesting English walnuts but no one loves the back breaking task of bending down to pick them up. Well, thanks to the Holt's Nut Wizard English walnut picker upper, you no need to bend over. The Holt's nut wizard is an ideal nut picker upper tool. Simply roll the wizard over your English walnut and the nuts appear to jump right in.

As you can see from the above picture, the nut wizard consists of a wooden pole attached to a cylindrical, wire basket. When you roll the wire basket over English walnuts, the wires open and engulf the walnut. As you continue rolling the basket the wires close with the walnuts trapped inside. So the Holt's Nut Wizard is quite the English walnut picker upper tool.

As you can also see from the picture above, the Holt's Nut Wizard comes in a variety of sizes. The different sized wizards are designed to pick up different types of objects. For example, you need a medium sized nut wizard for English walnuts. An extra-small nut wizard can be used to pick up ammo shell casings. A large nut wizard can be used to pick up apples and apple sized fruits.

So in summary, the Holt's Nut Wizard is a versatile English walnut picker upper tool. So this season, take the strain off your back and get a nut wizard.

:Cracking Black Walnuts With The Kenkel Cracker

We have written several posts about a variety of black walnut crackers. We have already identified the best commercial black walnut cracking machine for under $3,000. We have also written about a number of other inexpensive black walnut shellers for home use. But for some reason we have neglected to write about the Kenkel hard shell nutcracker.

The Kenkel nutcracker is specifically designed to crack tough, hard shell nuts, including black walnuts. It has a long handle that provides optimal nut cracking leverage and the amount of cracking pressure is user controlled. So the nut cracker has complete control and can ensure that the nut meat is not shattered.You can even adjust the cracking chamber to fit the size of the nuts you are cracking.


The Kenkel cracker is made of steel and will not rust. It may be the only hard nut shell cracker you ever need during your entire life time. And best of all the Kenkel cracker is very affordable at less than $60.

Kinetic Kracker: Best Pecan Cracker

By far, my favorite electric pecan cracking machine is the Kinetic Kracker. Why? For a couple of reasons, least of which is a fantastic pecan cracking machine for sale at a great price. The kinetic cracker reliably cracks 1,560 pecans per hour without missing a beat. It has a fan cooled electric motor that does not tire (over heat) so it can crack all of the pecans I can supply. And when I say that it cracks pecan, I do not mean that it smashes them into little pieces. The kinetic kracker actually senses the correct pressure needed to crack each individual pecan and adjusts accordingly. The kinetic kracker is a specialized pecan cracker that cracks pecans and pecans only.

The kinetic cracker functions as a commercial pecan cracker (ideal for small business operations) as well as a residential pecan cracker. Its small size makes it so mobile that you will end up taking your kinetic kracker to your friends' homes and cracking their pecans too. Or if you have a small pecan cracking business, you might just take the kinetic kracker along to a harvest and crack your pecan on site. Either way, the kinetic kracker is going to give you years of pecan cracking enjoyment. 

Best Price on Taylor Pea Sheller

We have written several articles about the legendary Taylor Pea Sheller, a pea shelling machine that is the most effective sheller on the market for residential use. But we wanted to let our readers know that they can now get a Taylor pea sheller at an amazingly great price at 855Sheller.com, where it's priced for under $400. That's quite a steal when compared to pea sheller retailers that sell the Taylor for over $500.

For those of you who have not heard about the Taylor Pea Sheller, let me tell you it is one smooth pea shelling machine. Featuring a 1/3 HP motor, this pea shelling machine is heavy duty. It is ideal for folks who are going to be shelling substantial numbers of pea bushels. The Taylor shells everything from black-eyed peas, crowders, lady fingers, white acres, to English peas. So you will get good use out of this pea sheller.

Taylor Pea Sheller Review

Today, I am going to review the "commercial pea sheller" known as the Taylor Pea Sheller. But before I begin this review, while the Taylor Pea Sheller is often referred to as a commercial pea sheller, it also perfectly suitable as a residential pea sheller. In fact, the Taylor Pea Sheller is larger and more reliable than other residential and light commercial pea shellers and it features a 1/3 HP motor. If you have a large home garden or will be shelling a substantial quantity of peas, the Talyor Pea Sheller is the preferred pea sheller for you. For smaller quantities of peas. the Mr. Pea Sheller is a more appropriate electric pea sheller.

What you are getting with the Taylor Pea Sheller is a lot of flexibility. Its small size makes the Taylor Pea Sheller highly mobile. You can take it with you to the kitchen, living room, or on an outside patio. Heck, you can take it to the field, as long as you can get a power source and ensure that the unit (and power source) are protected from moisture. Once you select a location to use your Taylor Pea Sheller, you will quickly discover that it can shell 3 to 4 bushels of peas per hour. The Taylor Pea Sheller is excellent for shelling black eyed peas, crowders, lady fingers, white acres, butter beans, and English peas.

Corn Husking with the EZ Chopper Cutting Board

Corn husking can be quite easy if you have the right tools. One of the essential tools that will make your corn husking easier is the EZ Chopper Cutting Board. The EZ Chopper features a cleaver holder that rotates on a food safe cutting board. When attached to a cleaver, the EZ Chopper allows you to efficiently and easily cut both ends of the corn for further corn processing. In addition to being a corn cutter, the EZ Chopper slices all kinds of other fruits and vegetables. It's ability to quickly process corn and other fruits and vegetables make the EZ Chopper a must have corn cutting tool.

But if you are looking to efficiently process your corn, do not stop with just the EZ Chopper. Once you have cut your corn ends with the EZ Chopper, use the the EZ Creamer Corn Cutter to complete your corn processing. The EZ Creamer corn creamer machine is an amazing tool that easily shucks, cuts and creams corn in seconds. It is an all in one corn sheller, corn shucker, and corn cuter.

  

A Quick Overview on Harvesting Black Walnuts

Experts predict that hazelnuts, because of their versatility, will provide many lucrative opportunities for nut growers and processors.  Hazelnuts are very popular in trail mixes. Additionally, hazelnut by-products can be used in a wide array of food products, including edible oils, spreadable nut butters, nut flours, and confections.  In addition to uses in food products, hazelnuts may be effectively used as feedstock in a bioenergy environment.  Given the hazelnuts' potential for economic enrichment, it is important for small growers to know how to efficiently harvest the nuts. 

Black walnuts should be harvested during the the fall, when they reach maturity. When mature, the nut hulls turn from yellowish to black. The hull will be soft to the touch and when squeezed your finger should leave an indentation on the hulls. Some people prefer to harvest black walnuts off the ground while others harvest off the tree. Harvesting off the tree may yield maximum quality.

Once you have picked your black walnuts, you should start hulling them. One of the commonly utilized hulling methods is stomping the nuts until the hull is removed. Be wary of the hull juice, as it will stain anything that it comes into contact with, including the cement, your clothing and your hands. The stain is extremely difficult to remove from your hands and impossible to remove from your clothing. So try not to get it on you. After you have removed the hulls, wash the nuts in water and remove dirt and debris. Take notice of any nuts that float during the washing process - they are rotten and should be thrown away. After washing allow the nuts to dry for several weeks in a cool dry space. Lastly, you will need to crack them. Do not even think about using a hammer or vice. The black walnut cracking tools are too slow and unreliable. Invest in a  black walnut cracking machine such as the Hunt’s Walnut Cracker or the Drill Cracker.

Be sure to store your black walnuts in a freezer to preserve freshness.

A Retiree's Joy of Harvesting Black Walnuts

Only a very small percentage of people ever get to experience the joy of harvesting black walnuts. Thank goodness that joy can be essentially replicated through any number of other activities, such as picking strawberries or harvesting other nuts. There is a certain calming effect that nut harvesting have on us, which is why I was struck by the story of Dr. Greg Beirne, a retired physician who has about 150 black walnut trees on his property.

Dr. Beirne harvests all of his black walnuts and uses them entirely for family consumption. Although many articles have been written about how to harvest black walnuts, Dr. Beirne has his own time tested process. He has been harvesting black walnuts for over a decade and he describes it as a labor intensive process.
Every fall, Dr. Beirne takes his five-gallon pails to his property and collects the fallen black walnuts.
He gets up early in the morning to beat the squirrels because they are competing for the same treasured nuts.

Once he's done filling his, Dr. Beirne takes his nuts to his shed and dumps them on a floor mat.  He uses his steel-toes boot to remove the husks by stomping on the black walnuts.  No worries about crushing the nuts because black walnuts are among the world's toughest nuts to crack. Of course, he has to thoroughly wash the nuts to remove the walnut hull juice.After washing, the black walnuts are allowed to dry for several weeks, sometimes months. When they're finally ready for cracking, Dr. Beirne, who is a diy walnut cracker, uses an he uses a black walnut cracker machine. And from there, the black walnuts are his and his alone to enjoy. He's simply living and retired in black walnut heaven. 

The Holt's Nut Wizard: Much More than a Nut Picker Upper

The other day, I was having lunch with my friend Kerry and his wife, Laura. Kerry is the owner of Lawn Gardening Tools, a website specializing in - none other than lawn gardening tools (you guessed it). Anyway, we are sitting in this restaurant and Kerry was describing this amazing nut picker upper tool called the Nut Wizard. The odd thing was that the Nut Wizard picks up apples, golf balls, ammo shell casings, pine cones, and all kinds of nuts.

So anyway, as I am listening to Kerry enthusiastically talk about the Nut Wizard,

I could not help but think to myself: "Nut Wizard. The name is an oxymoron. I mean how can you be both a nut and a wizard?" So I ask Kerry why call the nut wizard a nut wizard, when it does so much more than being the ultimate nut picker upper? Heck, it picks up golf balls. It's an apple picker upper. The so called Nut Wizard picks up ammo shell casings for goodness sake! It simply does not make sense to call it a nut wizard or a nut picker upper when it picks up so many other things.

Kerry's response was "too bad the Nut Wizard cannot pick you up and take you outta here!" Kerry let me know that the Nut Wizard isn't just called the Nut Wizard - it, like me, is called all sorts of names. "It's known as a nut roller, a nut gathering tool, the nut gatherer, nut picker, nut roller, gum ball picker, nut picker-upper, basket nut tool, nut grabber, yard roller, walnut roller, walnut tool, nut tool, lawn sweeper, walnut rake, lawn whisk, nut collector, acorn rake ... you get the picture"" Kerry asked. And just when I was about to say never mind, Laura comes in to add more names to the list: "sweet gum ball rake, acorn gatherer, acorn picker upper, pecan picker upper, walnut picker upper, pecan retriever, and sticky ball collector."

"Enough," I exclaimed. "I get it. You all are saying the Nut Wizard can pick up anything smaller than me." Kerry, looking pleased that I conceded that the Nut Wizard is the best nut picker upper in the world, said "Exactly, my Nut Wizard is the world's best nut picker upper and it can pick up anything smaller than you."

You should have seen Kerry's face when, just at that moment the waitress came with the check and I told him, "Great, then you and your Nut Wizard can pick up the tab, Kerry!

The Basics of Home Harvest Automation: Part 2 - Corn

Corn is among the most popular vegetables in the United States.  (Remember tomatoes are a fruit.)  But harvesting corn -  that is, getting corn from the field to the dinner plate, can be a challenge.  So today we are going to review the best way to harvest corn.


Timing Is Everything (Almost)

The very first step in harvesting corn is knowing when is the appropriate time to start harvesting. The window for harvesting most corn varieties is small so it is important to get the timing right.  There are several cues that you can go by to ensure that it is time to harvest.  First, the corn silks will dry up right before it is time for harvesting.  So if the corn silks are not dry, you automatically know that it is not yet time to harvest.  Secondly, if you check the corn ears, you can get a better idea whether it is ready to be harvested.  When the corn ears are fully expanded, the corn is read for harvesting.  The corn ears should have a rounded shape - not a pointed shape.  Finally, if you need further assurances that your corn is absolutely ready for harvesting, you can pull back the husk and ascertain whether the ear looks well filled.  You can prick a kernel of corn with a fingernail to see if the corn liquid is watery or milky white.  If the corn liquid is white, the corn is not ripe and therefore not ready for harvesting.  On the other hand, milky cork liquid indicates you are absolutely ready for harvesting. 

 

The Need for Speed

Once you have picked your corn, it is best to eat or store it as quickly as possible.  This will ensure that the corn does not have time to deteriorate, as the deterioration process starts immediately after picking.  Deterioration involves a process whereby the corn's natural sugars are converted into starch.  So if you are not going to immediately eat your corn you will need to slow down the deterioration process by blanching the corn.  Blanching simply means placing the corn in boiling water for about five minutes.  Once you have blanched the corn, it is imperative that you quickly process your corn for storage and there are a number of tools that can help you in that regard.

Lee's Corn Cutter

One of the most helpful corn processing tools is a corn cutter gadget such as the Lee's Corn Cutter.  The Lee's Corn Cutter and Creamer is the best wood corn cutter on the market.  And it is much less expensive than a typical electric corn creamer.  It utilizes a sharp, specially engineered corn cutter blade that is capable of cutting corn kernels cleanly or cream style.  Alternatively, you may find the Thomas Corn System, an electric corn creamer, to be more convenient and faster.  Electric corn creamers are a convenient way to handle the almost all of the corn processing steps, including shucking the corn.  Electric corn creamers typically require the use of a household drill and involve inserting the corn cob into a specially designed plastic tube where the corn is spun.  This spinning process is separately used to remove the shuck and corn kernels.  

Once you have processed your corn, you should now store it.  Because corn loses it sugars at a much slower pace when stored at lower temperatures, we refrigerating your corn.  For longer term storage, the best option is freezing in a vacuum sealer or canning.  If you are not a home canner, though, you will obviously need to buy canning supplies.

Trust us when we tell you, you will enjoy your corn harvest by taking the above steps to make sure it remains fresh. 

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Best Way to Pick Up Pine Cones

A friend of mine, Kevin, recently had his 5th surgery in 2 years. Fortunately or unfortunately he lives on 10 acres of land.  The unfortunate part of that living situation is that he is surrounded by pine cones.  There are pine cones to the east, west, south, and north. Every time he goes outside to pick them up his spirits are dashed when he soon discovers that hundred more dropped on the property in a matter of a few days. It is enough to drive a fella crazy - especially one who cannot afford to risk further injury by picking up pine cones.  So he asked me if I have any solution to his dilemma.

Well I have good news for Kevin and everybody else who has a problem with those annoying pine cones.  There is an easy and inexpensive pine cone picker upper that will put an end to your anguish - in some cases we are talking about physical and mental anguish. It's called the Large Nut Wizard or the Holt Nut Wizard and it's the perfect solution.

Large Nut Wizard

The Holt Nut Wizard is the perfect pine cone picker upper.  It is a cylinder shaped wire basket attached to a pole.  All you have to do is roll the wire basket over the pine cones and they are instantly captured inside the basket.  No need to bend your back or pick up the annoying pine cones with your hands.  So, Kevin, save yourself the trouble and aggravation, get yourself a Holt Nut Wizard, my friend.  It's your key outta Pine Cone Hell! (Your best bet is to get the Nut Wizard from Lawn-Gardening-Tools.com - they offer free shipping and have great prices.)

An Easy Decision: Cracking Pecans at Home with the Duke Pecan Cracker

We live in a complicated world, full of complicated people in complicated times.  Even technology - complicated.  For those of us who love pecans, I have a perfect product that is simple in every possible way.  In fact, to state it simply, it works and works well.  All it does is crack pecans and other soft to medium shelled nuts.  It's the Duke Pecan Cracker.  A great thing about the Duke Pecan Cracker is that it is inexpensive, at less than $20. 

Duke Pecan Cracker

Officially known as Duke's Easy Pecan and Nut Cracker, the Duke is made of steel.  Well all know who's going to win a battle between steel and pecans - steel wins every time.  The Duke crushes pecans but does not obliterate them so you will get clean nut meat out of each and every cracked pecan.  The Duke features a comfortably designed handle so you can crack pecans all day if you'd like.  A reversible cracking cup allow you to crack pecans of various sizes, as well as other medium and soft shelled nuts.  For example, the Duke is the perfect nut cracking machine for English walnuts. Unless you need a pecan cracking machine that will allow you to crack pecans in large quantities, the Duke Pecan Cracker is the way to go.

So if you are a pecan lover looking for simplicity in your life, start with Duke's Easy Pecan and Nut Cracker.  Hey, even the decision to purchase the Duke - simple.

The Holt Nut Wizard: The Ultimate Nut Picker Upper

Picking up nuts need not be such a chore if you have the right nut picker upper tool.  Today we want to review a nut picker upper tool that every nut harvester should have in his arsenal - the Holt Nut Wizard.  The Holt Nut Wizard lets you pick up all sorts of nuts.  And speaking of arsenal, the Holt Nut Wizard is also an ammo picker upper that is capable of picking up  bullet shell casings and other small items such as golf balls and fruits - all without straining or bending your back.  It is both effective and inexpensive.  So today we are going to explain in detail how and why the Holt Nut Wizard works and how to select the appropriately sized Nut Wizard for your needs.

The Nut Wizard comes in five different sizes - extra small (11" cylinder), small (12"), medium (14"), large (17"), and the new extra large Nut Wizard for picking up pine cones.  Although each Nut Wizard is capable of picking up nuts and seeds, each Nut Wizard is designed to be more efficient at picking up a particular sized nut.  So depending on the types of nuts you are trying to harvest, you may need more than one Nut Wizard.  For example, the 12" Nut Wizard is designed for harvesting small and medium sized pecans while the larger 14" Nut Wizard is for large pecans. The extra small, 11"inch Nut Wizard is the best nut wizard for acorns.  It is recommended for picking up small acorns, black, live, post, and scarlet oak, or pistol shells.  The extra small Nut Wizard can also pick up larger items in small quantities. 

The 14" Nut Wizard picks up nuts, seeds, fruits, or balls between 1" and 2" in diameter; we recommend it for very large paper shell pecans, red oak, chestnut oak, hickory nuts, golf balls, chestnuts (not the burrs) large swamp oaks, shotgun shells, reusable paintballs and medium sized fruits.

The 17" Nut Wizard is not only a black walnut picker upper, but it is also a pine cone picker upper that is also capable of picking up sweet gum balls, apples, oranges, lemons, citrus fruits, hedge apples, (osage-orange tree), and magnolia seed/flower heads.  So there simply is no good reason to harvest nuts without the Holt Nut Wizard.  It is an effective nut picker upper tool that you will not regret purchasing.  And your back will surely be grateful and pain free.

Shucking, Cutting & Creaming Corn at Home with the EZ Creamer.

I don't know many people who do not love corn.  By the same token, most people I know find it difficult to process corn.  I am writing this article for those folks because, with the right corn processing equipment, it is quite easy to shuck corn, cut corn, and cream corn right in the comfort of your own home. 


My favorite tool for processing corn is the EZ Creamer Corn Creamer. The EZ Creamer does it all: it is not only a corn creamer machine, it also shucks corn and cuts corn kernels.  The EZ Creamer works through the use of three cylindrical tubes, with each tube having been specially engineered to perform a specific corn processing task.  There is a tube for shucking corn, a tube for creaming corn and a tube for cutting corn.  You will need a household drill capable of 1,600 RPM to properly use the EZ Creamer. Additionally, if you picked your own corn, cutting the corn cob ends is much more efficient using a specialty cutting board, such as the EZ Chopper Corn Cutting Board.

Once you have your drill, using the EZ Creamer is a breeze. Simply drill the specially designed corn cob screw into one end of the corn cob and place the other corn cob end into the appropriate processing tube while the drill is rotating the corn cob.  For instance, if you have not already shucked your corn, you would start out by placing the rotating corn cob into the shucking tube.  Within literally a few seconds you will experience perfectly a perfectly shucked corn cob.

After you have shucked the corn, you can continue the processing by either cutting or creaming your corn.  If you do not like creamed corn, you should use the cutting tube to cut the corn kernel off of the cob.  Once you have cut the corn kernels off the cob, you may want to utilize this additional step  to make your corn even more nutritious and delicious.  If you go ahead and run the corn cob through the creaming tube, the EZ Creamer will extract all of the corn "milk" from the cob.  That milk will add tons of flavor and nutrients to your corn! By adding this additional processing step, you have the best of both worlds: hard cut, firm corn that is not creamy with delicious corn "milk" that you would ordinarily get only with creamed corn.  On the other hand, if you love creamed corn, simply place your corn in the creaming tube and enjoy.

The bottom line here for home harvest automation lovers is that the EZ Creamer is an amazing tool for processing corn at home.  It is easy, fast and quite inexpensive.  So I highly recommend the EZ Creamer for corn processing.    

The Basics of Home Harvest Automation Part 1: Nuts

So you had a huge nut harvest this season and you need to gather and preserve your harvest.  Although you may think there are a number of ways to go about preserving your harvest, truth is there are only two: the wrong way and the right way.

It is important that home harvesters become familiar with the ways to make their home harvesting easier and more efficient.  With the right tools, home harvesters can save time and money and, most importantly, effectively and efficiently preserve their harvest. For instance, I am astonished at the number of home harvesters that still have not heard about the Holt Nut Wizard, a simple, effective and inexpensive tool for conveniently picking up pecans and other nuts.




Holt Nut Wizard

The Holt Nut Wizard allows home harvesters to pick up pecans and a variety of other nuts from the ground, such as English Walnuts, Black Walnuts, Mocker Nuts, Chestnuts, Beechnuts, and Hickory Nuts.  The Nut Wizard is simply a oval shaped basket composed of thin metal wires.  The basket is attached to a handle, which allows you to simply roll the basket over your harvest.  When the basket is rolled over the nuts, the wires open up and capture the nuts inside.  If only more home harvesters knew that they could avoid the arduous, back breaking task of picking up nut one by one, they would gladly get their hands on one of these things.

Make no mistake about the Holt Nut Wizard: it works like a charm.  This is no gimmicky nut picker upper.  It comes in five different sizes so you will need to select the size that is appropriate for the type of nuts you are going to harvest.  Home harvesters that are serious about picking up nuts will need to add the optional Nut Wizard wire dumper, which allows you to easily open the wire basket over a buckets so that the basket will easily and conveniently release the collected nuts.

Once you have gathered your nuts, the next step is doing something with them - either using or selling them as is or cracking them.  For many home harvesters that means selling the nuts.  Because shelled nuts are considerably more valuable than unshelled nuts, it usually makes sense to shell them.  This is where harvest automation comes into play with your nuts.  There are a variety of nut shelling tools that will help the home harvester efficiently and conveniently shell his nuts but the tool that you select will depend on the type of nuts you want to shell.  If, for instance, you are shelling pecans, The Electric Pecan Cracker is the only true option, unless you want to spend tens of thousands of dollars on a commercial grade pecan cracker. 




Electric Pecan Cracker/ Kinetic Kracker

The Electric Pecan Cracker, also known as the Kinetic Kracker, has been around for decades but it is now manufactured in Texas by a company known as Southern Gardening Tools.  The Kinetic Kracker is a pecan cracking prodigy; all it does is crack pecans - pecans and nothing but pecans.  The Electric Pecan Cracker features a built in sensor that can sense the amount of pressure to apply to each pecan and a motor that turns at 26 RPM that is capable of cracking  that's 1,560 pecans per hour.  You will not find this kind of pecan cracking mojo anywhere else unless you buy a commercial grade cracker.  So when it comes to harvesting your own pecans, the Kinetic Kracker is the clear and undisputed choice.  But, of course, if you are needing to harvest some other kind of nuts, you will need to consider other nut cracking tools.