When I was a kid my mother used black walnuts in cookies all the time. It was my job to hull them and then they had to be dried, but nothing tastes any better in any recipe that calls for nuts.

Our farm is overloaded with black walnuts. Seems some years they are great, others aren't. Since they line the driveway (almost a mile long) I haven't noticed the producetion. I've had garbage cans filled with them in the past. The one thing I did find out are they are very hard to get the meat out of -- tried everything. ONE THING TO REMEMBER, if you have horses keep them away from the trees, sawdust or anything else, if not, you will have a very sick horse with problems with their feet.

Linda

Black Walnuts are a real pain to crack. I suspect that is the
main reason that English Walnuts have become so popular.

Taste is great though. I'd love to have one in my back yard.
Good luck with finding any in stores though.

Talk about a messy tree, locust trees are awful! The leave look like Boston ferns (pretty) but when they fall all the little leaves comr down and then the "ribs" of the leaves, but the worst is that they make these horrible "pods" They look like a wide vanilla bean and are about 10 to 12 inches long Just awful and when they fall on my deck they make this terrible clattering sound, which for some reason remonds me of cockroaches Ewee!

These are also called cigar trees because of the shape of the pods.

We have one and it too looks terrible this year. It is loaded with nuts, but the bag worms took over the tree this year and all the leaves are gone...eaten by the worms and now the worm nest..whatever they are called are dropping...eeeewwwww.....its just disgusting. The nuts are so hard to shell that I pretty much just toss them back into the cow pasture and forget them.

Hickory nuts ummm haven't had any since childhood in eastern Iowa. Really miss them!

Yes we have three and they look terrible. We were told it was the late freeze we had which also did a number on apple trees, blueberries, and a few other trees. We also had a lot of Fire Blight in the area this year.

Good thing with the walnut trees is they should return to normal next year providing no late frost. We were also told to not cut out the bad looking parts as they should revive also.

Boil the outer hull and strain and use the water to dye fabric. Works well.

We live in a small woods that has a lot of black walnut trees. They seem to cycle every other year with a crop of nuts. When the summers are harsh like this year, they may skip an extra year to save water. Ours look pretty bad, the last part of the summer has been scorching here, and nothing is doing very well. I'm allergic to tree nuts, but I do use the cast offs from the wildlife to make fun stamps. (Washed a little first)

Hubby wants to make walnut stain for furniture, I think that would be neat to have a couple pieces in the house made from our own trees. :)

We have one and a few years ago it looked like someone came along and stripped it of its leaves. Found out it was the gypsy moth worms who ate them, but the next year the tree seemed fine

We have 4 Black Walnut trees in our yard and several more along the woods/property line. They all look sick, but I think its from the hot dry weather we have had this summer. I can't give away the walnuts- one year I raked them all into our gravel drive and 'paved' it. Looked pretty nice and entertained the local squirrels. lol My hubbys grandmother used to make an amazing walnut cake with them!! I would like to have them cut and sell them for the wood, its beautiful. Also would'nt have to rake before cutting grass under them.

I live in Missouri and I have lots of black walnut trees and the nuts are huge - but they always are big. I don"t like the nuts and they are messy - always tracking in black on your shoes - or stepping on a big nut and turning your foot.. but the squirrels are in heaven.

Well, it seems like several of you are having the same problem with the nuts - but I am surprised that another Missourian (passionpiecer) who also lives in MO is growing large nuts! What area are you in PASSIONPIECER - not the Ozarks, I am assuming?

no, actually close to kc - but for some reasons my walnuts have always been bigger than some others. Some little boys came by and wanted to pick them up as they were the biggest they had seen - I told them just to leave enough for the squirrels

Did you know lol...that the hull of the black walnut, is used used to make a tinture that kills varmin in your body? No fooling. it will kill parasites. A few drops in a glass of water will keep you varmin free lol....

thats very interesting - had not heard that before , but all i have to do is brush us against or handle walnut tree limbs and I get a rash. I pretty much try not to come into contact if I can help it.

Varmin?? I have VARMIN???? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

My dh works for a large lumber yard and he said the Black Walnut wood is quite expensive and it's special order only.

our walnut trees don't look too good this yr. I think we were just too hot and too dry. (ohio) I hope they pull through. I love my walnuts and my trees.. their mess and all. once we get a cool fall day the kids and I will go out and collect all the nuts and put them up to dry and my boys like doing the dirty work so I'll have lots of nuts for the holiday cooking..

Walnut trees are pretty tuff. They r the first trees to yellow and loose their leaves in the fall. Some years u will have lots of walnuts, other years not so much. U can always find a willing neighbor to let u pick theirs. Good luck on ur trees.

We have a couple down the lane but no walnuts this year. We put them in fudge at Christmas time.