My grandad used to gather black walnuts from trees next to the public walkways. Eventually, people who owned those properties started gathering ones from their yards into paper grocery bags and giving them to him, just to get rid of them. He hauled the grocery bags home in the grandchildren’s little red wagon.
Our garage was large, and he had the use of a full parking stall. Bags of black walnuts got emptied into a large bin he built in the empty stall. then he wet down the pile of walnuts, and kept it wet. About two months later, he set grandsons to work peeling off the rotted husks. That gave him an inexhaustible supply of nuts for eating. He made a nut cracker with a 2" thick X 4" dia steel circle that he had a local machine shop cut a 2" hole through from flat to flat, and then bore and course-thread a 3/4" hole from the outside edge to the center. A 3/4" bolt with slightly sharpened tip and a 10" X 1/2" rod sideways through the head completed the indestructible cracker.
Grandad was diabetic. He couldn’t have candy. Grandmother would send him out for a pail of nuts, and sit him at the kitchen table to crack them. Then she used the nut meats to add to cookie dough, and baked oatmeal and walnut cookies for him, sweetened lightly with saccharine, as well as some for us kids sweetened with sugar. Hot out of the oven … YUM!
Oh, BTW, when word got out that Grandma had a reliable source for a large amount of shelled nutmeats, she started selling little paper candy bags full of them to other cooks – 20¢ a bag. most such cooks bought 3 or 4 bags, and a small (jelly-size) Ball canning jar and lid (40¢) to store them in their fridge. Since at that time the A&P didn’t carry such things, she had repeat customers year-round. Typically, she pulled in about $5 a week. In 1950, that was good pin money for her.
Yakety Sax about 1 year ago
Smack it upside his head. That’ll crack it!
Qiset about 1 year ago
My dad kept trying to make a cracking tool for black walnuts. He finally made one. It was quite a serious machine.
jagedlo about 1 year ago
You’ve been drafter as a nutcracker, little birdie!
MS72 about 1 year ago
fly up a few thousand feet and drop it on a rock.
coltish1. about 1 year ago
“Apply constant vise-like pressure” and get an instant vise-like headache.
rshive about 1 year ago
Hide it! Hide it!
[Unnamed Reader - 14b4ce] about 1 year ago
You’re gonna need a bigger bird.
tygrkhat40 about 1 year ago
Why bother? Walnuts are disgusting.
jconnors3954 about 1 year ago
Fly high and drop?
Carol from CT about 1 year ago
Aw, nuts!
Scott S about 1 year ago
Gulls often break open shellfish by dropping them on rocks or the pavement.
Or sometimes vehicles. On a beach vacation the roof & hood on my car got a number of dings that way.
Bill The Nuke about 1 year ago
How’s your aim? Drop it on his head from 100 feet and see what cracks.
Billy Yank about 1 year ago
The squirrels around here just use their sharp front teeth to gnaw away the husk of the walnuts.
SrTechWriter about 1 year ago
My grandad used to gather black walnuts from trees next to the public walkways. Eventually, people who owned those properties started gathering ones from their yards into paper grocery bags and giving them to him, just to get rid of them. He hauled the grocery bags home in the grandchildren’s little red wagon.
Our garage was large, and he had the use of a full parking stall. Bags of black walnuts got emptied into a large bin he built in the empty stall. then he wet down the pile of walnuts, and kept it wet. About two months later, he set grandsons to work peeling off the rotted husks. That gave him an inexhaustible supply of nuts for eating. He made a nut cracker with a 2" thick X 4" dia steel circle that he had a local machine shop cut a 2" hole through from flat to flat, and then bore and course-thread a 3/4" hole from the outside edge to the center. A 3/4" bolt with slightly sharpened tip and a 10" X 1/2" rod sideways through the head completed the indestructible cracker.
Grandad was diabetic. He couldn’t have candy. Grandmother would send him out for a pail of nuts, and sit him at the kitchen table to crack them. Then she used the nut meats to add to cookie dough, and baked oatmeal and walnut cookies for him, sweetened lightly with saccharine, as well as some for us kids sweetened with sugar. Hot out of the oven … YUM!
Oh, BTW, when word got out that Grandma had a reliable source for a large amount of shelled nutmeats, she started selling little paper candy bags full of them to other cooks – 20¢ a bag. most such cooks bought 3 or 4 bags, and a small (jelly-size) Ball canning jar and lid (40¢) to store them in their fridge. Since at that time the A&P didn’t carry such things, she had repeat customers year-round. Typically, she pulled in about $5 a week. In 1950, that was good pin money for her.
bakana 12 months ago
The birds capable of cracking that shell would Eat the Nut.
And, probably the Squirrel, too.