Black walnuts

[44man]

I use a pooper scooper to pick them up but ours are so big. I get 3 or 4 in it to dump in a bucket. Is there a better way to pick them up?

[Iowa Fox]

Here's what we use. Works slick and makes short work of picking up nuts. Just keep the grass mowed short when the nuts start to fall.

http://www.nutwizard.com/

http://gardenharvesters.com/Category...FYk7aQodVp0D_w

We use the big one for walnuts and our hickory nuts. Smaller one for accorns.

Not much to pickup as the squirrel population is out of control. Can't shoot enough or trap enough to even make a dent in the population.

[kfarm]

Got one in my front yard. Been picking up a 5 gal bucket of walnuts every day now for a week but got 10 gal this morning. Hope they all fall soon. If it weren't for it being the only tree in my front yard I'd take a saw to it. They do make good targets thrown into my lake and once made a potato gun for them. Durn thing will go thru a 1/2" plywood at 30' also crush up the green ones put them in a burlap sack toss into the lake, makes fishing a little bit more fun not that I'd ever do it.

[fryboy]

Used to sell them when I was a kid and is my favorite of the various nuts ( peanut being second hazlenut third )
Can't help much on the easiest way to pick them up except if you don't eat them or sell them "free for the picking " add in Craigslist may work

Edit to add ...that nut wizard is related to our brass picker uppers lolz

[shooterg]

5 trees around the house. Wife hates 'em. Pretty constant "thud thud thud" on the roof this time of year. I gather enough to put away a few bags cracked with my old Foley walnut cracker. They taste good but it's a LOT of work ! Always been curious to see how they're processed commercially.

[Jeff Michel]

Getting dressed this morning at 0430 and just about went outside to see what this hollow thwack sound was every couple minutes. It dawned on me it was walnuts ricocheting off the propane tank just outside the open window.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

Black Walnuts sell all day long at the local farmer's market for $5 for a 5 gallon bucket. Yeah, it's not much $$$, but it's better than hauling them to the City's compost site (many people do that, that's where I'd get them to sell at the market back when I was a vendor there, also, I had a couple locl townspeople who had trees, didn't want to pick up nuts, I'd offer my services to clean them up from under their tree for a small fee).

I prefer Butternuts. I 'had' a Butternut tree in my yard, those nuts bring more money...I think I got $20 per 5 gallon bucket last time I had some to sell (before the tree died).

It's funny, when that tree was alive and productive, I could never shoot all the squirrels in my yard...I'd shoot a few everyday, some others would always show up the next day ...Nut fed squirrels are good eatin' ...BUT, Now that tree is gone, and the squirrels are few and far between.

[shooterg]

The squirrels around the house are very fat - between walnuts and stealing cat food they do very well .

[crowbuster]

bumper crop round here, I use the nut wheel for hickories, hull em with boot if didnt pop out when hit the ground. Alway used one of those long reach grabbers for the walnuts, then hull em with my blackhawk corn sheller. Worms bad this year in the hickories, some trees 50% loss when floating them. Finished a few hogs out on acorns, makes sum great meat. Would love to hear how other guys process walnuts as well

[cattleskinner]

Pay a local kid a penny a nut to put them in a bucket, or pay by the bucket full? Another good trick for the hulls if you want to go fishing. Once they turn black, fill the bottom of a bucket a few inches full, then fill the rest of the bucket with water. Make a dark water "soup", which is then poured over a 3-4 foot section of the yard. Worms will come right to the top to get away from the acids from the walnut hulls. The only problem is you have to use the worms within a day or two, as they tend to die if not washed off really well.

[Col4570]

The Walnut timber could be a good source of gunstocks if the Trees are cut down and allowed to season.

[hoosierlogger]

I have the kids help me pile them up in the yard, then we take turns running over them with the garden tractor. They love it and the reward is them getting to run the tractor. We usually put up about 2 5 gallon buckets each year. Then I spend countless hours In the woodshop cracking them. Kids are no where to be found then.

[JWFilips]

Any one here pick beech nuts? From the time I started hunting at 11 I always gathered up a bunch of these to take home when our Beagle was running a rabbit ( he would chase him down a long time before bringing them back ..so I had the time to pick) Interesting flavor especially if you roasted them in an iron fry pan

[daengmei]

Used to eat the beech nuts as a kid, they were so many around the bigger trees. Loved them. This,

The sweet seeds are very edible and can be crushed into a butter. The nuts have a low amount of fagin which is slightly toxic and is found in the skin of the kernel (roasting allows that skin to be easily rubbed off.)

from http://www.eattheweeds.com/the-all-american-beech/
Never seemed to bother me, maybe it's hard to eat enough of them being so small?

[CLAYPOOL]

Donate/sell to your local FORESTRY program with your state. ILLINOIS used to buy them for there programs. Every few years they want them form other trees to have different genetics. You can also pour them out with permission in some ones woods. We hulled them with a hand crank corn Sheller. Please supervise little hands and fingers. Those old Sheller's are dangerous, BUT FUN.

[StolzerandSons]

My method involves kids(grandkids, nieces, nephews, etc.) under 5 preferred(they aren't real sure of the value of a dollar yet). A penny a piece, it serves two purposes, it gets the walnuts cleaned up and gives me a break for at least an hour to recover from playing with the kids. And of course the kids are pretty happy to have a couple bucks.

[Frank46]

Get some visqueen in rolls and lay it flat under the trees. All it is sheep plastic. when full roll them up in one corner and shovel into containers. Frank

[Col4570]

Walnuts ,I love them,I could eat them till the Cows come home.I like a few sprinkled on my Porridge in the morning.

[Teddy (punchie)]

We are all going nuts , LOL !!!

Enjoy them while you can as walnut TCD.

[Moonman]

Out of season, the NUT WHEELS can be used to PICK UP BRASS CASES.