ponytug
Super Member
That's a neat walnut pickup setup you have there!That's the funny thing... I dump these in the creek, then buy walnuts at the store. They're such a terrible mess to husk, that it's just not worth the trouble to DIY them.
I rigged a few Bag-a-Nut pickers to my ZTR. They're great in concept, but the implementation must have been handed over to someone who learned mechanical engineering from Sesame Street. Absolutely terrible designs, both their original (on front of ZTR) and their newer design (back of ZTR). I keep getting inspired to make my own, but time doesn't exist for such projects, these days.
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Yes.
I prefer black walnuts or butternuts over the english walnuts that we have around here (and in the store).
I remember trying to dry and shell black walnuts when I was younger, and boy did we make messes. I then met some folks who used a dedicated pot to boil the black walnuts in water for half an hour or so. It gets the black stain off the outside, and they become far easier to open. IIRC, don't plan to use the pot for anything else ever again, and crack what you cook promptly.
Here's what the commercial folks use around here. Similar idea, but perhaps a bit of of engineering beyond Sesame Street;

(You can see the grafts on each stump between the black walnut root stock and the english walnut trunk.)
We are getting smoked by the Moon complex fire in Oregon that is on a tear in some very rugged countryside. Indoor day.
All the best,
Peter
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