Foraging in the Fall // Hickory Nuts // Cracking Walnuts // Acorn Collection
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- Опубліковано 12 вер 2024
- FREE FOOD IS EVERYWHERE!! Fall is here!!! Foraging in the Fall is the best time to forage. The hickorys, walnuts and oak trees are dropping their leaves and seed and you can forage and get lots of great nuts, fruits, seeds to collect and process and they can be saved for many years. Foraging in fall is made even easier with an acorn collection machine called a bag a nut that picks up multiple acorns at a time. I'll show you when to pick up, what to look for, how to harvest & collect, the benefits, how to process, crack walnuts, and storing them for years to come.
ACORN Flour:
crack shell on the acorns
soak twice changing water in between (3-4 hrs. then overnight)
taste one at this point, if still bitter, boil them in fresh water
grind in a blender when dry (going for cornmeal consistency)
walnut huller:
amzn.to/3bBDvvz
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Came across your video when learning about foraging Black Walnuts. I love that you brought your kids out with you. And them picking the bottles for money is also great for the environment. Teaching good values like that are so important. I’ve subscribed!
You can make syrup from the bark of the shag bark hichory tree, peel the strips of bark, wash and scrub them with a stiff brush to remove bugs and lichen off, break the bark into short pieces, bake the washed bark in the oven for about 30 minutes before boiling, place bark in pot cover with filtered water, and bring to boil, as soon as it boils, turn heat down and simmer for 30 to 60 minutes then strain the liquid. Measure your liquid and add one cup sugar to each cup of liquid and continue boiling to reduce it and thicken it. When it reaches 225 degrees with a candy thermometer it should be close to being done, just check for thickness. It has a smokey but not over powering flavor to it. The nice thing is you don't have to tap the tree like you do for Maple and Birch and other trees.
As for the acorns, I have been using them for flour for close to 50 years and I never did the floating thing, in fact never heard of it, I pick through my gathered acorns and look for pin holes in them if you see on that means the acorn weevil have already gotten to the nut, I discard those ones, if no holes the nut is good. The Native Americans didn't sort them that way, they would eat the worms too, protein. Once I have the nuts sorted, I bake them for a short period in the oven to help loosen the shell. The easiest way I have found and have used for years to separate nut from shell is still time consuming, but faster than a nut cracker. I have a board with a small round gouged out hole a little less than half the thickness of an acorn if you lay one on it's side in the hole, I have an Old Hickory butcher knife past it's prime, drilled a hole near the tip, have two small blocks of wood with holes in the middle mounted to the same board as the gouge hole, set knife blade between blocks, run a bolt through and it works like a paper cutter, just set the blocks so the blade crosses the center of the gouged hole. Place an acorn in the gouge hole, lever the knife blade to cut it in half and take the halves, put back together and place back in gouge uncut side up, and repeat. You have now quartered your acorn and the nut meat comes out easily. Just have large bowl or bucket and toss the quarters in it until all are split, then go to taking meat out of shell quarters, this goes fast once you have done it a few times. I always had my kids shelling meat when they were young an at home, now it is just me.
Take you nut meats and grind them rough, and soak in cold water 6 hours or so, even overnight,, strain and drain the now yellow water off and repeat, after a few days you will see the water will be clear, when it is to that point the nut meats have been leached of all their tannic acid and will no longer be bitter, by the way, white oak are the preferred acorns for eating and flour, red have more tannens in them. I then take the ground nut meat, spread it out to dry in a warm oven with the door ajar to allow moisture to escape. When the meats are dry, I run them through a food processor to fine grind the, and for good measure toss them back on baking sheets an dry a little further in over. Once dried I use my acorn flour for breads, pancakes, cookies, muffins etc. I mix it with regular flour though, straight acorn flour will give you a very heavy and dense loaf. A lot of work, but worth all the effort as far as I am concerned, even at my age, I will still go to the trouble, in fact the worst part for me is gathering the darned things.
Sorry this is so long.
lots of good info, thank you!
For the acorns, I know the Indians in the Southwestern U.S. would put the acorns in a flowing stream bed for a time, ( sorry I don’t remember how long for sure but think it was like overnight or all day ), to remove the tannins. I am about 5/8 Cherokee...spellcheck says Cherokee but 😁 with the accent I suppose that would be right.LOL Pooch 1953, are you all from the South? I never heard that about the syrup. Way cool! I’m in Alaska now. Parents homesteaded outside of Fairbanks. It was surprising but there are apple orchards,cherry orchards and even a peach orchard although that one is on a man and in a greenhouse.
Spellcheck had the first word as C.h.e.r.k.e.e and the second was not man but m.t.n.😬 😁
@@susanlee9532 No, I am a Pennsylvania country boy. Always had an interest in Alaska since I was a kid, just never had the opportunity to visit.
Pooch1953 , It is a 3 1/2 day trip from Northwest GA to Fairbanks and a bit longer to Anchorage with a night’s rest midway, and a few naps along the way.
I loved this video! You can also make furniture stain from the black walnut shells! Everything around the walnut trees will die, because they have a poison in them that kills other plants. I agree with you about the taste - they are delicious! Butternut walnut is even better.
We have used a smaller nut gatherer here available from the hardware store which looks like a wire basket on a small handle, the size of a walking cane. I have had good luck roasting my nuts at 300f for 10 minutes to enhance the taste. Great videos! Thank you for all the effort.
Great tip!
An Iowan forager finally ive been looking for more local tips!
Thanks for the video! That is a different video for you, but I liked learning about these nuts and acorns. I'm glad you are taking your kids with you - they're learning some valuable lessons.
That's how we learned. Gotta pass down the knowledge.
To hull black walnuts, just lay them on the blacktop and drive over them with the wheels on a lawn mower. It takes the husk right off. You may have to make several trips but I have been doing it for years. I store hickory and walnuts for one to two years before shelling. Gives them time to dry better and they store long term much better. It also gives them time to off gas, which can cause spoilage.
Hedge tree = Osage orange, too. It's popular with folks who need a super hard wood, it's strong and still fairly flexible. Often used for recurve bows.
Also would be interested in the links for the walnut stuff, please? Too bad their customer service isn't awesome.
walnut huller and sheller are from this site.
www.bestblackwalnutcracker.com
I had some problems with a broken huller and had to open a paypal case against them. After that, they made things right but it took them 2 weeks.
I was wondering if anyone recognized what they were. We have a hedgerow along one of our fields where they grow pretty well - in fall we have people who collect them as a keepsake for a Sunday drive. You don't want to be under an Osage Orange when they start dropping !
I love the smell of hickory seed. A bit like balsam.
I love making hickory nut milk / tea! Thanks for sharing this info!
You are so welcome!
White oak eats well too ...but its sweeter .
You can tap hickory and boil the sap same as maple for syrup. You can also tap fruit trees. Try just dumping the walnuts in the husk on a gravel driveway and drive over them for a few days. Then gather the nuts and wash them with a spray nozzle. Gather the clean nuts and spread to dry.
I see a future video series...forage and freeze dryer :) nothing better than putting free food in the freeze dryer
no doubt about it!
Cool video. Thanks! We had a black walnut tree in the house I grew up in out west but the nuts were so bitter. We never harvested them. But that black stuff gets everywhere and when we would step on the fallen nuts we would track that stuff through the house. Have you seen them selling hedge apples in Fareway? Our local one used to, I haven't seen them for a couple of years , but I haven't really paid much attention. Never tried hickory nuts. I wonder if any of the family farms have some trees. I will have to find out.
Black walnuts are one of the few plant foods that are a complete protein.
wow. that's pretty cool.
It's useful to keep a map of locations of different nut bearing trees .
Yes, true. I have quite a few mapped already.
Just moved to TN a few months ago and via curiousity found out I have a hickory and shag bark hickory tree in my backyard. Was wondering what all those golfball sized nuts were droppin outta the tree.. i collected about 30 and took off the husky, rinsed the nut and have em dryin out.. i think its pretty cool.
This is cool 😎. It is getting cold.
Mornings are really cooling off and leaves are changing. Fall is creeping in!
Pear Brandy is very good .
This was a wonderful video. I love your channel.
An awesome use for the black walnut hulls is to make black walnut tincture. Black walnut hulls are a great source for iodine. That's all the stain you see coming from your hulls. Iodine is an essential mineral that our thyroids use to make thyroid hormones. It can also be used as an antiseptic for wounds.
wow. good info. How can you make tincture?
@@live.life.simple. You can make tincture by cutting the green hulls off of the walnut, as you already do, then place the green hulls in a mason jar, or similar storage container, with at least 80 proof vodka. Let that sit in a dark place for 4-6 weeks then strain out the bits and put the tincture in a glass jar for use. Dark color glass will keep your tincture at higher quality for a longer period of time since it will prevent light damage.
This site here has some great information such as how to make it, different uses, and warnings. (Not my site. Just a site I used for its tincture recipe and usage.)
commonsensehome.com/black-walnut-tincture/
@@xadi1017 good stuff, thank you. Maybe I will try it and make a video. Appreciate this kind of info
@@live.life.simple. you're very welcome. This site also has great info: joybileefarm.com/black-walnut-tincture/
You have to scroll just a bit to get to the tincture section. It's after the section about planting black walnuts.
I look forward to that video 😀
I’ve bought acorn caps off eBay for craft projects. Might be another side income for your kids.
Good idea! I'll relay that to them😃
Hulls burn very hot in wood stoves.
Question: I have 2 big buckets of hickory nuts that have now some white mold on the bigger shell. Is there any way I can salvage them? Like soaking them in vinegar water, maybe?? We picked them dry from the ground. They had mud on them so we washed them in water and then sun dried them. Then store them in buckets. Now they have mold... :( Thank you!!
You can use the husks for stain and dye...hair, material, wood. Love hickory nuts❣️ Have you found and tried beech nuts?
i have not. are they native in the midwest?
Retired at 40- Live.Life.Simple. I don’t know but they are in North GA ,TN and that general vicinity. Mom and Dad used to have a couple of American chestnuts also on their place. I wondered because they used to have beechnut gum here and some places still carried it B4 the mess this year. I never seem to find anyone who has tried them. Curious about the taste,
@@susanlee9532 my father in law is one if the few people in the us slowly bringing back chestnuts. I'll have to ask him about beechnut.
Retired at 40- Live.Life.Simple. 😊🥰👍
do you have a link for the acorn picker upper?
Noob forager here: How do you ID walnut and hickory trees visually?
Without the nuts on them?
shag bark hickory is easily identified by its bark. It looks like it is falling off the tree. The leaves are pretty distinct as well. The easiest way for walnut is the leaf shape. They are in clusters. After you spot them a few times, you can spot them from far away, just by shape and form.
@@live.life.simple.
Thanks for that!
Any other resource you might know of directly? Or online?
I can def Google it? but thought I'd ask you 1st for a recommendation.
Thanks for your vid!
Now i know that's a Hedge [fence post?] tree fruit.(green small softball size)...So it's the tree that's valuable not so much the fruit?
That green walnut outside that turns black is iodine! You may want to tincture that!
I saw where you said you can replace wood with shells to smoke meats, but are there any other uses for the shells you're left with?
Other than meats, i have not used them for any other purpose. They would probably be a good fire starter.
Are you on public lands? How do you know where it’s ok to forage?
ask permission or check with your dept of natural resources. some care and some don't. Also, people hate mowing or running over nuts in their driveways and lawns. They are a nuisance in most people's eyes.
The reason Hickory nuts aren't cultivated is because it takes EIGHTY YEARS to produce nuts. I looked into growing some but got turned off with that
Can the seeds be used to grow more trees? What about the bad acorn seeds?
yes you can use them for next year to plant. bad acorns will probably not produce, or with low yield.
Hickory nut look a lot like pecan .