Husking walnuts

[bluegiantsc]

Does anyone know a good way to get the green husk off of walnuts?
In the most efficient way possible.
I have about 500 in my yard that I need to pick up and I would like to husk them. I tried last year but I wound up up with black hands. I set them out on a table in the sun to dry them out a little and the squirrels got all of them.

 

[bucky52]

i let them turn black and they are a lot easier to hull.but oh so messy.

 

[Mehjr10]

http://www.homesteadingtoday.com/ge...uestions/326223-processing-black-walnuts.html

Old fashion corn sheller, is also supposed to work on them.

 

[bluegiantsc]

Awesome, thanks so much!
The link you sent me Mehjr led me to another link that said I could use a portable cement mixer, which I happen to have!
I'll be husking walnuts all weekend now!

 

[chocolate m'scovy]

Yes, there is an easy way (if you don't mind them not being perfectly clean). Just leave them on your driveway and drive over them with your car a few times. The tires will crush most off the hulls off, and you can roll the nuts out of their hulls with your shoe. I tried the same way you did this year until I figured driving over them was the easy way! Maybe there's a reason the people who had our house before us planted all the black walnut trees along the driveway! I hope we like the black walnuts after all the work I've put into them!

As far as drying, I left them for a few hours to a few days out on the driveway. Maybe if you have squirrels, keeping them someplace with GOOD ventilation would be a good idea.
I tried gathering some which looked dry and leaving them in the kitchen in paper bags 1/3 full...and they started molding! So I left some upstairs in a laundry basket right next to an open window, and they almost all look good!

I just gathered 6 drywall buckets for a friend who is in his 80's. He just runs them over as well and leaves them on a pavement for a few weeks to dry!

 

[jbirds2012]

Yes, there is an easy way (if you don't mind them not being perfectly clean). Just leave them on your driveway and drive over them with your car a few times. The tires will crush most off the hulls off, and you can roll the nuts out of their hulls with your shoe. I tried the same way you did this year until I figured driving over them was the easy way! Maybe there's a reason the people who had our house before us planted all the black walnut trees along the driveway! I hope we like the black walnuts after all the work I've put into them!

As far as drying, I left them for a few hours to a few days out on the driveway. Maybe if you have squirrels, keeping them someplace with GOOD ventilation would be a good idea.
I tried gathering some which looked dry and leaving them in the kitchen in paper bags 1/3 full...and they started molding! So I left some upstairs in a laundry basket right next to an open window, and they almost all look good!

I just gathered 6 drywall buckets for a friend who is in his 80's. He just runs them over as well and leaves them on a pavement for a few weeks to dry!

yea, that's what i was gonna say. i had a walnut tree in my back yard that had a street running down the side of it. i noticed that the ones that fell in the street were getting hulled for me by the cars driving by. so i would rake em out in the street, let em get hulled and rake em back in before the squires would get em. it worked out pretty good. but i have to caution you, i had a 6' wood fence between my yard and the road witch stopped the projectiles from hitting me. every once in awhile i would hear a car go by and a walnut hitting the fence.

 

[browneyed demon]

I have english walnuts and found rubbing them a grate for a barbecue grate. the ones used with charcoal grills. the wet ones come off pretty good the drier ones some good some not.

 

[browneyed demon]

I liked the cement mixer idea tho. i am going to try that one next to do bunch at a time.

 

[rehric00]

Last year, I put all mine in a big pile and ran them over again and again with the car, then just pick the pits out. Wear gloves, maybe even double them up and dont do it on a nicely paved driveway, we did ours in gravel in a less noticable spot....

Anyone have any good ideas on drying them out? I had mine on racks that I thought had good airflow, but they started to mold. When I spread them out to dry in the sun, the tree rats got them

 

[1 old hen]

I use bead trays. like they deliver bead in. they stack good, have good air flow. I set the stacked trays in my coop. my coop is devided so chickens have one side and I have the outher for feed or whatever. you would have to check around to see where you might get some. mine came from store that was going to put some in the trash. I have also made a box of 2x4 frame and wire round the side and a roof set on a stand outside.