Is there a best method for cracking and picking black walnuts. There are many trees where I live now. Think I can train my wife? Haven’t tried a pig castrator yet.

Grandpa used to use his 49 Ford PU. Jack the rear of your truck or car up and place a board under the drive tire with the exact amount of space between board and tire to hull or crack the walnuts. Then start it up, sit on a bucket and pitch them under the tire. Easy peasy lol.

I picked a bunch with the kids a couple years back, picked em when the green was starting to wrinkle and turn black, and then let them sit until the hull turned all black and crinkly. I couldn't get the hang of it, if I hit them too lightly, they wouldn't break, and if I hit them with enough force to crack them open, they would smash into a hundred pieces. It seemed to be an all-or-nothing thing. I'm interested in how other people do it.

you gotta crack them without crushing - a regular nutcracker wont do it.

I do a few (and hickories too) with a pair of channel locks - adjusted so that they cannot crush the whole thing.
but its slow.

if you need to do a bunch, you are probably better off buying (expensive) or building something made to crank it out.

something like this is top notch, but expensive to buy. https://www.photomagnets.com/theworldsbestnutcracker.html

Whack them between two bricks. You will never get them out like English walnuts.

Smash them and sift through the pieces.

Black walnut cracker.
Heard it caller a "Cork sizer" too.

Ball peen hammer and an anvil. It's hard to get any large pieces. But it doesn't take much black walnut meat to flavor stuff like fudge, they're pretty strong.

Hammer on the point, not too hard!, but not too soft either,

Eat em shell and all like a peanut. Good fiber.

The only way I know to get big pieces out of black walnuts is to use a knife point on the flatter end and split the shell in two. Hold the knife blade close to the point to avoid injury.

Above advice is spot on....they are stronger in flavor and a little bitter. Along the roads in California we could pick up all we want but they were too much work compared to English walnuts.

Good luck

Pete

How about using a vice to give them a squeeze?

Would putting them in the freezer overnight help any?

I crack them with a hammer. Don't crush them. Just crack them till the shell splits into big pieces. Then, take some pointed wire cutters and snip at strategic locations. You will get some surprisingly large pieces. Practice makes perfect.

Says right in the ad it won't crack black walnuts though.

We always just used a hammer on a solid brick and side cutters to pop open access to bigger pieces like huji mentioned.

If you live in an area with many walnuts you can pay a commercial cracker. When I was a kid we filled tow sacks with them and spread them on the driveway one layer deep and left them a bit to be run over by the vehicles. Paying a commercial cracker worked much better.

Who ever heard tell of "Picking" walnuts? Wouldn't that be a chore.

A friend of mine used to be into cracking walnuts pretty heavy. Good, clean black walnut kernels sell for $10 a pound or better. He made good money.

He'd go out and rake up and shovel up walnuts, then he put them into a concrete mixer, to beat the hulls off of the nut. He'd put some railroad spikes and a crosstie plate or 2 in the mixer and let it roll. I never watched him do it, but he said the nuts will roll up on top. He had drying racks, just 1/2 inch wire mesh nailed on 2 x 4's, kept them up off the ground with good air flow. Out in the sun they were ready to crack in 3 or 4 days.

That's when the work starts. Picking out clean kernels, and keeping all the shell fragments out of the big chunks.

The best walnut cracker that I've ever used was handmade, Granddad made it. Hard to describe, but it had 2 little cups that the nut would fit. I'd guess they were the little cups like you'd have on the end of a U-joint. That hold the needle bearings. Fairly long handle, and you'd bear down on it till the nut cracked. Dump the works out on the table and have at it.

I'll tell you a white cake with black walnuts is hard to beat.

Passing the shells would make you tough!

Question #1. Yes, pick them up off the ground when the hulls are green.
Question #2. I highly doubt it!

Drive the truck over the green walnuts to split the hulls. Remove the hulls (with gloves on unless you want black hands for a month), let dry. We would take the hulls off in the Fall and crack them open in the Spring. Dried in the root cellar. If the hulls were not removed they would get maggots when they turned black. Crack them in a vice along the seam.

Good luck with training the wife. When you figure out that formula please pm me! So I can try it on mine.

Cracking black walnuts is easy. A hammer, vice, a couple of bricks, or anything else will do it. Getting the meat out is just about impossible. I've rarely ever managed to get big chunks out.

that's the way most do it here. run over them in the driveway to get the hulls off, (gravel drives not paved) then a hammer to crack them and dikes for fine tuning and a pick. An old hand crank corn sheller works real good. Quart jar of black walnut meat will fetch a good price at a farmers market. nothing better in fudge or brownies. Put some in a batch of home made vanilla ice cream. Will make ben and jerry jealous