Have you ever processed walnuts before?  

We had a large walnut tree when I was a kid. I used to love the smell of it in summer. In late June or early July, the walnuts were green and soft (the shell hadn't hardened). We picked all the ones we could reach and pickle them. This is a long process which involves pricking them all over with a needle and soaking them in several changes of brine for a week or ten days. At the end of this time they have turned from green to black and they are then bottled up in hot vinegar. Pickled walnuts are still my favourite with cold meats and cheese at Christmas time.

Those nuts that we couldn't reach, of course, ripened and fell to the ground in the autumn. By then the green outer skin had turned black and shrivelled and the clean, brown nuts could be picked up and stored. Some years were better harvests than others and the nuts were sweet and plump. In bad years there was often very little nut in the shell.

I loved to be able to crack a nut so that the two halves came cleanly apart. We would make little boats out of the shells with a matchstick for a mast.

I love black walnuts but never had a tree, culled them or cooked/baked with them. My mom says my grandma did but that was probably in the 1920's which would be before I was born. I remember hearing stories about using a devicethat looked like a hammber to break the shell. I live black walnut ice cream but never buy it.

Not walnut, apricots, I hate those things and we had to mow around the trees and there was this one limb that hung just low enough that you would hit your head on it every time. I don't miss those days at all.

Hey celtic! I love walnuts! I have never had them straight from
a tree! I do remember my mom cracking them for me when I was
a kid though! I love them in cakes, cookies and just plain! I
really can't chew them anymore (since I have no real teeth
and am missing some on the bottom) so I miss having my walnuts
and cashews and pistacios which are all my very favorite nuts!
It really sucks to be old! I tell that to my dentist all the
time! He has all HIS REAL teeth so what the hell does
he know!

I haven't prcesseed walnuts before. I do remember having a chestnut tree in the back yard though. Those nasty little burrs were rough on little feet..lol..I liked the chestnuts though.

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