The Wonderful Black Walnut

The Black Walnut (Juglans nigra) is one of North America’s most prized trees and its nutmeats have been treasured for centuries if not thousands of years. It likes well-drained, fertile bottom-land soils, especially along streams, and is common as a dooryard tree around old farmhouses and cabins. It don't know how to spot one, look at a field guide or google it.

Harvesting, Processing, and Storing:
So I’ve heard and read different things here, but this is what I’ve personally found out to be the most time-effective way to go about gathering a good quantity of the fruit.

Note: Once you find a tree, before getting started you should probably take a moment and ask the tree for it's gift. And you'll probably want to thank it after you collect it's fruit. I usually pause and have a moment of silence, close my eyes and try to visualize all it's been through and seen, and offer it a little prayer. When thanking it, I'll usually take a couple fruits and hold them in my hands and bless them, and then offer them back to the ground below tree. This is just what I do. It's subjective and variates. It seems like a good idea to develop some grounding rituals as we forage and connect with our local habitat, for sure.

Anyways... here's the process...
1.Find a bunch of the black walnuts on the ground in the fall. It doesn’t matter if they are fresh and green, or all oily and black. Just collect a bunch. I usually put them in a big bucket.
2. Take them home, dump them in a big pile, and let them sit till there are no green hulls left. Don’t worry about the maggots, they don’t get through the shells, they stay in the hull.
3. Then rip the nutshells out of the hulls and throw them in a bucket. You might want to use gloves; some people get skin irritations. I personally like the way my hands feel after they get all saturated in the oils (and maggot guts-ha!).
4. Let the hulls dry out and store them if you want to use them later for dyeing or medicine.
5. Next, fill up the bucket the nuts are in with water. Separate and discard any that float because they are not good.
6. Then put on some clothes that you don’t mind if they get stained, get a piece of bamboo (or broomstick, random sturdy branch, or whatever) and stir the nuts as fast as you can. The tough shells will scrape off all the extra hull pieces and clean themselves up nicely. Repeat this a few times. When you dump the water out it will be super black and you might want to put it in a separate bucket and use it for dyeing. (Throw in a couple rusty nails to make the black color of the dye a little redder). Don’t poor out the water on your garden or near any perennials.
7. After they look pretty clean dump them in the sun to dry, or put them on a heating pad for a little while to dry if the sun isn’t out (if you use a pad don’t leave them on to long or they will begin to crack open a little and not store as well).
8. After they are dry put them in a cool, dry place and let them cure for 2 weeks.
9. We usually take a few minutes before dinner and put a few of the walnuts in a pillowcase, hit them with a hammer, and pick them into a bowl. Then we sprinkle them on salads, pies, or whatever seems good. If we want to get a bunch at once to make butter or pie with them, we crack a lot of them and pick them while we watch a documentary.

It takes a little time, but is well worth it. And if you get a few buckets of them, they'll last all year!

Nutrition:
The black walnut nutmeat tastes great and is very nutritious. It includes beta-carotene, thiamine, iron, riboflavin, niacin, magnesium, potassium, carbohydrates and protein. It is rich in the essential and seldom-eaten Omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (linolenic and linoleic), containing 60% fat. It also contains 20-24% protein, and 10-15% sugars.

Medicinal Uses:
Leaves can be decocted and used on skin as antiseptic for sores and infections. Green hull juice applied to skin to treat ringworm. Used internally to treat yeast infection. Native Americans used inner bark tea as a laxative, and chewed bark for toothaches. Leaves, bark and hull used as astringent against diarrhea (can stop milk production). Valued as tonic and strong anti-fungal. The hulls can also be used to treat intestinal parasites. According to Peterson guide, juglone, a growth inhibitor in leaves, possesses sedative activity comparable to diazepam (Valium).
Video on treating intestinal parasites:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sx3G6NPAvNc

Story-time:
According to Donald Culross Peattie, the prized black walnut became so rare by the middle of the last century, except in the southern Appalachians, that lumberman went on a door-to-door hunt throughout the country tempting owners to cut down and sell their shade trees for a fraction of their true value—tree owners sometimes unknowingly sold trees that were worth more than their entire house.
Proving once again that trees are shady, but businessmen are even shadier.

Miscellaneous:
Husk juice will stain hands and cause irritation dermatitis on some people’s skin
Hull can be used as natural dye
Leaves can be used for flea remedy
Apple trees or tomato plants will not survive near them, and don’t put shells in compost.
Bark used in tanning.
Prized for gun stocks and cabinets.
Husks were once used to stun fish for food, a practice that is illegal.

Every year in Spencer, West Virginia there is a Black Walnut Festival:
http://2009.wvblackwalnutfestival.org/

Books to check out:
Medicinal Plants of the Southern Appalachians
By: Patricia Howell
The Herb Book, By: John Lust
Peterson Field Guide: Medicinal Plants and Herbs
Natural History of Trees, By: Donald Culross Peattie