Gathering Hickory Nuts

I love hickory nuts!

Until recently, I had not harvested the delicious morsels since I was a child.
They are small, thus it takes a lot to get a lot. Plus,  they are hard to crack just right in order to get them out of the shell. I have never found them in the store for sale. I searched online and found a few places selling them already cracked. They varied in price, but one place sold them for $26 lb. + shipping. Most places were selling the nuts still in the shell.

Our neighbor's tree is full of them this year. He said, "Take all you want."

We're are still  gathering nuts off the ground, and the tree is still loaded.

We took them out of their husk and spread them out on the driveway. You are supposed to let them dry for a while before cracking them. (If you can wait that long)

We have the perfect nut cracker. I just happened to look in our closet in our family room and found  this. One thing about us - we do not throw away much - we figure it might come in handy some day. This was (I'm sure) bought at a yard sale and tucked away and forgot about.

            

 Just place the nut and lower the handle. 

The shell cracks all around the nut and most times the nut comes out in perfect halves.


Hickory nuts are high in oils and do not keep well at room temperature for more than a couple of weeks. The best way to store them for long term  use is to freeze them.

We've got a quart bag full and ready to go in the freezer, and we have many more waiting to be cracked. Just look at all  those pretty 'butterflies.'

There are still more to gather off the ground. 

When they are this easy to  crack,  we are not going to let any go to waste.

Their taste reminds you of pecans and they can be used in any recipe that calls for pecans.

Or just eat a handful of them.

They're good!

Have you ate hickory nuts before?

Are there any trees in your area?

Posted by Janet Smart on Writing in the Blackberry Patch.

Oh, Nuts!

Hickory nuts and black walnuts, that is.

How do you get this bag of black walnuts. . .

and, this box of hickory nuts. . .

to turn into this?

and this?

All you need are the nuts gathered from out in the woods, a hammer, a hard surface and nut picks. I always crack my walnuts out on our driveway.I put a clean rag underneath, for easier clean up. You will find that black walnut shells sometimes have a tendency to fly in all directions when you hit them with a hammer. You will  be picking up pieces of shell from here, there and everywhere when you are finished.

I have been sitting out on the concrete steps of our front porch and cracking the hickory nuts.

I have found that if you hold the hickory nut on it's side this way, you will get the best chance of getting the big butterfly pieces of the nuts. Don't hit it on the fat, flat side, but on the skinny side, if you know what I mean.

This is what you like to end up with. The big butterfly shaped pieces.

I have already cracked a quart of the hickory nuts. There are still lots left to crack, I should end up with at least another quart or more when I am finished. My son has been helping me with the hickory nuts.

I still have a lot of black walnuts to crack. I'm going to have to start cracking them in the garage, since our weather is supposed to take a turn for the worse.

I posted here on how to hull the black walnuts.

You can use these nuts in just about all your baking projects. They are delicious in your fudge, cookies, banana breads and cakes. I haven't did it yet, but they say you can use hickory nuts in place of pecans in your favorite pecan pie recipe. I think I am going to try that. My neighbor says her mom used to make the best hickory nut pie! She told me she thought she made it  like pecan pie and just used the hickory nuts instead.

Have any of you every made hickory nut pie? If so, tell us your recipe.