With Russ Cohen
Black Walnut – A Tough Nut To Crack, But Worth It!The Black Walnut tree (Juglans nigra) is well-known and appreciated over much of the United States. The nuts admittedly present a formidable challenge to process and open, but their unusual and assertive flavor has no counterpart, and you may find it to be well worth the trouble.
Although Black Walnuts are not native to Essex County or Massachusetts – their natural range is to the south and west of here – the trees can be found here and there throughout the region. One place I have seen them is near old farmsteads, where they may have been planted in the erroneous belief that they repelled insects. I have also encountered the trees in thickly-settled residential neighborhoods.
Black Walnut trees tend to leaf out later than most local species, and are hard to recognize when dormant. Unlike Shagbark Hickory’s distinctively shaggy bark, the bark of Black Walnut trees is hard to distinguish from other species. Their pinnately-compound leaves also bear a strong resemblance to those of several other species, like Sumac or Ailanthus. One way to confirm the identity of a tree as a Black Walnut is to “scratch and sniff” the central stem of a leaf. If it’s a Black Walnut, you will notice a spicy aroma, which is identical to the smell of the husks surrounding the nuts. (If the smell is only faintly spicy, chances are that you have encountered a Butternut tree (Juglans cinerea), also known as “White Walnut” because of its lighter-colored wood.)
The main edible product of Black Walnut trees are the ripe nuts, which are in season in this area in October. The nuts are surrounded by a spherical, green husk about 2 1/2 inches in diameter – about the same size and diameter as an old, green tennis ball. (Butternut husks are the same size and shape as a green goose egg.)
Black Walnut trees will often drop some if not all their leaves before their nuts, which makes the nuts easy to spot. Wait until the nuts drop off the tree to harvest, but don’t wait too long, or the squirrels will beat you to them. A typical Black Walnut tree produces dozens if not hundreds of nuts, which won’t all ripen and fall off the tree at the same time, so you can typically gather a bunch of nuts and then return a week or so later to get those that have fallen in the meantime.
One technique to remove the husks is to roll out your gathered nuts on pavement and drive over them several times. The technique I use is simply to stomp on the husks where I find them under the tree, and then roll them around under my shoe to remove the husk. Black Walnut shells are notoriously hard to crack open. The shells are in fact so hard that they are used commercially as an industrial abrasive. While they will break most conventional nut crackers, a vise or hammer works fine.
Black Walnuts have a robust and aromatic flavor, considerably different from and much stronger than the cultivated, store-bought “English” (actually Persian) Walnut. Black Walnuts would not work well in any recipe that requires the nut flavor to fade into the background, because it won’t. (Butternuts have a milder flavor.) On the other hand, Black Walnuts do work in recipes without competing flavors.
Miscellaneous tidbits:
c Black Walnut nut meats are low in saturated fats, high in unsaturated (i.e., healthy) fats, and contain significant amounts of protein, Vitamins A, iron, minerals and fiber.
c Sometimes people make pickles from immature Black Walnuts or Butternuts (e.g., when a strong storm blows them off the trees). If a knitting needle can be pushed through one of the nuts, they are young and tender enough to be pickled.
c Both Black Walnut and Butternut trees contain sap which can be boiled down for syrup (but maple syrup is much tastier).
c The wood of black walnut is dark brown in color, easily worked, and is highly prized by furniture makers, and therefore commands a premium price.
