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.
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.