Hickory nuts...Does anyone know about them??

[bkreugar]

If this needs to be in food i'm sorry. So I googled a lot about them. i have had the house for almost 10 yrs. Now realize I have a hickory nut tree that drops TONS of nuts literally outside my front door. Anyway when I google it says they are supposed to drop in early fall. They are dropping now. TONS of them. Half of them are green and half have the brown husk. SO are they dropping early maybe because of the drought or dry conditions? DO I try to do something with the brown ones and just throw the green ones away? Is it worth the bother of cracking them?I read they can be used instead of pecans. ANyone have experience?

 

[FlaRocky]

All that I have ever used them for is cooking. When I am grilling on a grill, I soak some of the nuts in water for a few hours. Then add them to my grill to add a nice smokey hickory flavor to my meat or vegies.

Maye

Ride the Glide.....Got Gait.....I Do....

 

[big medicine]

There are several varieties of hickory trees. I have both shagbark and bitternut, the former great eating, the later, well there is a reason they are called bitternut.

We have been having a very dry year here in south west Ohio as well, coupled with some strong winds, we have alot of nuts on the ground. This is also about the time of year the sguirrels start cutting nuts up here. Last year we had a very poor to no hickory nuts produced, very hard on the squirrels,

About the only advice I have is crack a few and see what condition they are in.

 

[bkreugar]

Thanks,I try.I guess the green onesijust throw away?

 

[jbowen9]

The green ones is probably the hull you can split that open and get the nut out. You will have to look but around here when they are green it is usually the hull is still on the nut.

 

[onedoodle3]

Yep. The green is the hull. Now if you go to take the green OFF the nut...well, be prepared for black stained hands. Best to use gloves to do that particular chore. We have hickory trees all around us. One even hit me on the head as I was mowing the other day. Yep, it hurt!!

I had collected a lot of them about 4 years ago, was going to shell them and give them to my mom. She loves them for baking but won't pay the outrageous prices the grocery stores charge. Well, I left them on my front porch so they could dry out before putting them in the driveway to crack the shells. Went out 3 days later, no nuts. Had a trail of nuts going off the porch. So I followed the trail....ended at a squirrel nest in the tree behind the fence.

Guess the poor squirrel needed them more than my mom did. She got a good laugh out of it. Her and Dad had sat on THEIR porch and watched the squirrel running up and off my porch. Had no idea what it was doing until I started tracking the nuts.

I just go buy mom nuts now whenever she wants to bake something.

 

[Janet Pesaturo]

Bkreugar, if you are still reading BYC, I'd be curious to know whether the hickory nuts that fell in mid-summer eventually ripened to point that they were good to eat. We have a lot of hickories here (several different species) and I forage for the nuts every fall. I know that if I pick them off the trees too early, the nuts do not ripen, but I've never known them to drop in July.

Quote: I wonder if onedoodle3 was confusing hickory with black walnut. I've husked many hickory nuts, and never had my hands stained. Black walnuts do it, though.

I write about wild edibles, and here is my article on identifying, husking, and shelling hickory nuts, if you're interested:
http://ouroneacrefarm.com/hickory-nuts-foraging-pignut-shagbark-hickory-nuts/

 

[ivan3]

We're completely shaded by Shag barks. Our woods are primarily White Oak and Shag bark. This is the first `heavy' season since `09. Grey Squirrel population is pretty much controlled by DW. She uses a deer-scoped stainless Ruger .22, too cumbersome IMHO, but none have knocked out our power (cooking themselves and popping the transformer down by the road) and the new growth on the trees is where it should be, rather than covering the ground (got to keep those teeth from getting too long - so bye bye branches) since she got serious about the tree rats. She is a Southern Nocturnal Flying Squirrel `gestation enabler', i.e., lower competition for primary food source and keep the Greys from killing and eating the Nocturnal Squirrel pups (Barred Owls & Black Rat Snakes do sufficient damage as it is). We usually use 1/3 Hickory nuts to 2/3 Pecans for pies (Hickory nut meat has a lower fat content/somewhat drier), the Hickory nuts have slightly more flavor (but overall taste, to me, like `diet Pecans'). We'll probably freeze about 25-30lb. (could do more but time is the limiting factor). We place the unhusked nuts in cardboard boxes for a couple of days in order to collect up the Pecan Weevils (`maggot' phase) that exit the bad nuts (petite meal worms, sorta - chooks love `em). I just sledge the excess nuts out back and sweep off onto ground - the girls spend serious time getting to the `meat of the matter'. <

 

[Janet Pesaturo]

That's interesting info, Ivan. In what form do you freeze hickory nuts? I'm assuming you husk them, but do you leave the shell on when you freeze them?

 

[ivan3]

We freeze them (they remain good for years). Below is shot of `08/`09/`10 (what's left), the variation in color has to do with level of moisture available to trees when setting the nuts (`07/`12 were drought years - almost nothing). `09 was pretty wet (nice fat HN's). Inset illustrates: Flying Squirrel damage/Pecan Weevil damage - and an example of this year's product (adequate moisture). A cardboard box, with one end cut down (freely swing hammer) with a brick in the box, allows one to whack away and not have the majority of the meat fly away. To remove larger sections from shell use flat blade of micro-screwdriver or dental scraper. After we get easiest material out of shell I whack the remainder and dump it all next to the fire pit (chooks/turks pick through leftovers for weeks)..