Help please. Someone gave me a bag of walnuts...

[truth2power]

Straight off the tree. I'm clueless...I started peeling off the outer green fruit thingie. Discovered I need rubber gloves. They stain something terrible. :dunce:

Getting to the shell is like trying to clean a peach pit. Can't get all that goop off and if I crack the shell I'll get all that goop in the walnut meats.

Obviously, I don't know what I'm doing. How do I process these things to turn them into walnut meats? :eyes:

[politicat]

1. Ahhh... google.

I can't claim I knew this (I mean, I sorta remember my dad dancing on the driveway years ago during the fall, but I thought he was just weird, ya know?)

http://www.wildmanstevebrill.com/Plants.Folder/BlackWalnut.html

Scroll down - and yes, you should wear gloves and old clothes and shoes. Walnut stain is the original black dye, but I'm sure you don't want to have it all over you

ETA: http://www.extension.umn.edu/projects/yardandgarden/ygbriefs/h404blkwal.html has good tips, too.

[truth2power]

2. Thanks, Cat..

Great links. Especially the first, with the pictures. Guess I'll be stompin' in the driveway. :P

[SoCalDem]

4. Black walnut cracking is an ART.. You need an icepick & a hammer

Pound the icepick into the little divot and when you hear the crack, then tap the shell with the hammer..

English walnuts are very different.. I have only ever seen then with the brown shell..never green

[NMDemDist2]

3. lay them out in a single layer and let them dry first. once the husks

dry they are much easier to deal with -- IIRC from my Grammy's English walnut tree days