Monthly Archives: August 2017

The Nuts and Bolts of Macadamia Nuts

If you don’t know your nuts, then you may not know that there are nuts that are actually described as creamy.  Macadamia nuts are described as one of those creamy nuts and quite delicious it is.  Grown on tall trees– and often harvested straight from the tree– macadamia nuts are indigenous to Australia and are also known as Queensland nut, bush nut, maroochi nut, bauple nut and Hawaii nut.

Macadamia nuts require some effort– much like that of the black walnut but less so.  They are often plucked from trees in their green or black casing.  The key to successful macadamia nut-cracking is this: they must be dried out.  After picking from trees, these nuts need to be stored in cloth for weeks until the outer husk begins to crack (store securely to avoid critters).  Once this cracking begins to occur, the outer shell is easy to remove.  You are left with a smooth macadamia seed.

BlackWalnutCracker.com Macadamia nut cracking cracker

The green husk has to dry completely until it cracks. Then, the nut seed shown on the left is ready for cracking.

The hardest part is done.  Once you are down to the “seed” level, your macadamia nuts are ready to crack.  We recommend the Master Cracker or the Get Crackin’ for this job.  The Kenkel Cracker is another great choice.  For those of you with large quantities of macadamia nuts, definitely consider the Drill Cracker.  It will crack a 5 gallon bucket is 5-7 minutes.  All of these crackers are quality, American-made products.

Macadamia nuts have loads of healthy benefits and are great as a stand-alone snack or in a recipe such as fudge or cookies.  If you have any great recipes, forward them over to us and the best will be featured here.  Til next time!

855Sheller.com Nutcracker Nut Cracker Kenkel Drill Black Walnut Macadamia nut pecan cracking Blackwalnutcracker.com

So delish; so healthy!

 

 

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Maple Black Walnut Fudge

The rich flavor of fudge pairs deliciously with the winey, intense flavor of black walnuts.  Thanks to Mainecook61 with Food52.com for this scrumptious recipe.

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups maple syrup (Grade B preferred)
  • 1 tablespoon corn syrup
  • 1/2 cup heavy cream
  • 1/4 cup milk
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1/2 cup coarsely chopped toasted black walnuts

Step 1- Butter a loaf pan.  Combine but do not stir maple and corn syrups, cream and milk in deep pan.  Cook until mixture reaches 238 degrees (soft ball stage) on a candy thermometer.

Step 2: Remove pan from heat and cool until lukewarm (able to touch bottom of pan easily).

Step 3: Beat or stir hardily the mixture until is thickens and loses shine.  Mixture will turn lighter.  This process may take up to 10 minutes.  Then, working fast before it hardens, beat in the vanilla and then the black walnuts.  Spoon the mixture into the butter loaf pan and smooth out.

Step 4: Cut fudge and allow to firm up.

ENJOY!

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Black Walnut Harvesting Video- Check it out!

Have some laughs and learn a lot about black walnuts and how they are a great survival food!  Check it out!

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Black Walnuts 101

Here in Dothan, Alabama, we find ourselves not only in the Bible Belt but also in pecan country.  Often pronounced “pee-cans”, these soft-shelled nuts play the starring roles in candies, pies, casseroles and more.  But in no less than 32 states, a nut of a whole different nature plays the lead and that nut is the black walnut.  The black walnut tree is the most fully utilized tree in America.  The tasty nut meat is a popular treat; the wood is used in many applications including furniture and gun stocks; the husks are utilized in making dyes; the shells– the toughest of any tree nut in the world– is used in a variety of industrial applications (including abrasive cleaning, water filtration and oil industry).  The black walnut tree is fully utilized much as the American Indian utilized every part of an animal– waste not, want not.

Harvesting black walnuts range anything from a hand collecting operation to nut rollers to pull-behind picker uppers and up.  The process can be messy as black walnuts secret juglone– a toxic substance (primarily to plants) that is hard to remove from hands, clothes and more.  The harvesting process is much easier with a tool designed to make the collection hands-off.  Our favorites listed in order of price: Holt’s Nut Wizard, Stab-A-Nut Black Walnut Harvester and Bag-A-Nut Black Walnut Harvester.

Will not wash off– but will fade in 1-2 weeks time.

Hand stains for Black Walnuts

After the collection process, two tasks are at hand: removing the husk and cracking the shell.  The husk is the outer-casing on the black walnut.  Make life easier and wait until this husk turns from green to black.  This also ensures that the walnut is dried out– which is the perfect state for cracking.  To remove the husks, you can do this manually– which gets messy.  Or you can employ a wide variety of tactics.  My favorites include– running over them with a car (likely not very effective for large quantities), placing them in a cement mixer with sand (very effective) and placing them in a wire cage and pressure washing them.  In areas of the country where black walnuts are prolific, there are processors that remove the husks. Drop me a line if you determine a faster or easier way.

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Removing the husks of black walnuts requires creativity but cracking them is a whole different task.  Again, we’ve heard of lots of creative ways to do this but please heed this advice.  Find a good black walnut cracker– and buy it.  A good cracker will last for many years and make this difficult task simple.  The shell of a black walnut is so hard that they are used for industrial applications!  That alone shows you how hard the shell is.  In the past, people have used methods including hammers.  Really, don’t.  This is asking for troubles!  We recommend the following crackers in order of price:  Steel Nutcracker II, Kenkel, Master Cracker and Drill Cracker.  Guess what?  All of them are quality-built, American-made crackers.

Thanks for following us through the journey of a black walnut primer.  Comment or jot us a line about your black walnut questions or advice.  We’d love to hear from you.

 

 

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