Walnuts, again

So, the black walnuts have been sitting around drying for almost 2 months, and I decided it was time to start the final stage of processing.

Step 1: smash the shell with a small sledgehammer. No, normal nutcrackers can't break the ultra-thick, super hard, spiky black walnut shells.


Step 2: sort into empty shell pieces, nut pieces, and chunks of shell with nut pieces still in them.




Step 3: try to get the remaining nut pieces out of the shell with more smashing or by pulling them out with a dental pick.

I got about 1.5-2 cups from maybe 100 walnuts? I'm still not sure I really like black walnuts! They taste sort of cheesy-fruity, bitter, and smoky all at once.