Some pictures of black walnuts

Here's what the walnuts look like with their husks on. Ripe ones are yellowish and can be indented with your (glove-covered!) finger. Once they sit around on the ground or the hulls get smashed, they turn brown:


I smash the hulls off by grinding them into the gravel driveway with my boots, or running over them with the car. Sushi cat for scale:

As you may be able to see in this picture, the hull juices stain everything, including the plastic bucket and gloves. These are heavy-duty gloves. I made the mistake of wearing flimsy dishwashing gloves earlier, and ended up with stained hands for a week.

The walnuts dry outside for a while, then they sit on a window screen to "cure" for several weeks.


Right now the nut meats are kinda rubbery. I tasted one and was blown away by its bitterness and fruity, almost apple-like, flavor. They say the flavor develops as the nuts cure. We'll see.