Some research on processing black walnuts on a small farm

This post reports some research into processing black walnuts.  It is not complete, and ideally will be updated as time goes along.  It provides an overview of the processing steps, and the techniques and machinery for three scales - manual ($300 investment); small mechanized equipment ($2-3K investment); and small commercial scale equipment ($15-$20K investment)

This post reports some research into processing black walnuts.  It is not complete, and ideally will be updated as time goes along.  It provides an overview of the processing steps, and the techniques and machinery for three scales - manual ($300 investment); small mechanized equipment ($2-3K investment); and small commercial scale equipment ($15-$20K investment)

This started serendipitously, when a chestnut colleague, Jono Neiger from Big River Chestnuts farm, wrote to our WMass Nutgrowers Google Group - a group of farmers growing nuts in Western Mass - about this guy Ben Chaprut who was collecting and processing black walnuts in Boston and selling black walnut cookies on his Etsy shop, UncleBensBounty.  As it happened, a grant opportunity also presented itself, so I did some quick research andI wrote a grant proposal for small, mechanized black walnut processing equipment ($3K).  Since then, I’ve found other people who are interested, I’ve done more research, and it’s time to write this up.

Why black walnuts?

Black walnut trees are native to New England and adapted to our climate and ecology. In contrast to the small, new nut trees on Massachusetts farms - almost all planted only in the last decade - many big, mature black walnuts exist right in our towns and farm landscapes.  In the Midwest and Southeast, black walnuts have been gathered, processed and sold for generations, but here in New England, this crop has been neglected, and the nearest processor, Black Squirrel farm, run by Sara Tyler, is just starting up in the Finger Lakes District in upstate New York, six hours away. 

Black walnuts are desirable for their strong, earthy flavor, and are loved by bakers for cookies, cakes, and breads, and by chefs for salads and main courses.  They are also extra healthy: black walnut meat is higher in protein, unsaturated fat, and vitamins than English walnuts. Their hulls are used in teas and tonics and as a natural dye.  The sharp husks can be ground to an abrasive powder for cleaning, or used with juglone-tolerant plants as garden mulch and snail deterrent.

On our farm, we have multiple mature black walnut trees and a number of volunteer young trees.  Of all the trees that naturally spread to our fields, black walnut is the most common and vigorous one, and we’re starting to think we should keep some of these volunteers for future harvesting.  Other small farms we know, such as Firefly Farm in Southwick (Diana Laurentis), and Preservation Orchard in Hadley (Nicole and Jonathan Carr) also have black walnuts and are interested in processing them.

Processing black walnuts 

In October, black walnuts fall from the tree naturally in their green hulls (other nuts, like chestnuts, fall mostly free of their hulls).  From there to the tasty nutmeats is many steps.  As usual, there is a range of approaches:  you can do everything with a minimum of equipment and lots of time and elbow grease, or you can get machines for some or many of the steps, and these can be a range of sizes and costs.  Bigger and more expensive usually means you can run through more nuts in a given amount of time (as one might expect). 

As is my custom, I spent many hours on YouTube and generally scrounging the black walnut corners of the Internet, but I also spoke with some actual black walnut processors about their machines, and with a couple of manufacturers of the machines.   I am grateful to Ben Chaprut, Alan Israel, Sara Tyler, and Ryan “the Hickory Nut Guy” for sharing their experience and wisdom on processing technique and equipment; and to Carleton Daily and the owner of Photomagnets for talking with me about the equipment they make and/or sell.  

Below is a summary of my findings so far.  It’s possible that these will be updated over time.  I’m just going to put them in a table to make it an easier reference tool.  But first a quick list of the steps to get from hulled nut to nut meat.

Steps for processing black walnuts.

1. Gathering.  As far as I can see, people gather these nuts manually into bags or buckets sometimes with simple tools.  
2. De-hulling.  This is the process of getting the thick green outer hulls off the nut seed.  It is a messy business as the hulls can get gunky and the sap is a black ink that makes a deep stain on anything it touches (hence its use as ink).  
3. Cleaning.  The de-hulled nuts have to be cleaned to make sure that all the hull bits are removed - even small pieces of hull can apparently impart an unpleasant taste.
4. Drying.  Once washed and cleaned the nuts need to be dried thoroughly to prevent mold.  Dry nuts can be stored for a long time.
5. Cracking.  Black walnut shells are among the hardest in the nut world and therefore specialized cracking equipment is necessary.
6. Sorting.  Cracking leaves you with shells and meat pieces that need to be separated.

Overview of equipment and methods for each step of processing black walnuts.

This table provides a summary of what I’ve found so far, with additional information below the table. 

Processing step	Manual (Ben Chaprut’s method)	Using small mechanized equipment $1-3K investment	Using small-scale commercial equipment $15-20K investment
Gathering	Nut wizard  to roll over area under tree and buckets.	Same as “Manual”	Bag-a-nut black walnut harvester for larger jobs, combined a tote on the back of a truck.  Requires a small forklift.  Buckets will also do.
Hulling	Hitting with a mallet. Manually remove remaining bits of husk.  Nuts fall out pretty cleanly.	Adapted cement mixers or buckets and hand-held cement paddle-mixer.	Automatic de-huller and cleaner from pecannutbusters $2995
Cleaning	Remove remaining bits of hull with a jet-stream of water (nozzle and hose).	Hoze with jet-stream nozzle.	In principle not necessary with the pecannutbuster de-huller.  Otherwise, power wash.
Drying	Air-dry on a rack	- Sun-drying in stacked racks or produce crates. - Stacked racks with fan blowing from beneath or over the nuts	Same as “Small mechanized”
Cracking	Crack nuts one by one.  Ben loves Grandpa’s Goody Getter. 1/2lb per hr and 22% nut yield	Hand-crank black walnut cracker $760 (1);  Automatic electric nut cracker ($1200 + $900 shipping) (2); Turcobazaar cracker $1064 (3).  Approximately 10% meat yield	Adjustable Patriot 600 $15500 (4) or Black Walnut Cracker by pecannutbusters $7995 (5)
Sorting	Sort each nut by hand. Salt water method - put in bowl with salt water, swish and gather nuts from top	Salt water method	Shaker table for separating shells from meats $1300, followed by salt water method for part of the shells and meats that were not separated.

(1) Reports from people who have purchased this machine is that the original cracker was very good, but that with a change in the design the machine no longer cracks well.  Three people I spoke to all said it was not a good purchase.
(2) Did not find anyone who has used this machine, nor any information about brand or production (no report from seller when inquired), although in general the three people I spoke with were not happy with the company.
(3) Alan Israel said he had used one but did not like the way it cracked the nuts on the first pass and that it ground the nuts to dust on the second crack (email correspondence).  Have not found others who use it.
(4) The de-huller on the website is not the one being currently sold; the current one is the same price.  
(5) Alan Israel loves this machine, and has adjusted the settings so he only needs one crack.  Sara Tyler (Black Squirrel Farm) just purchased one.  It is exclusively available from Grimonut.com in Canada (ships direct from the manufacturer in the US).  The adjustable version can be set to get a good crack on black walnuts in a single pass.  It can crack any nuts.  Hazels come out nicely.  Pecans and Persian/English walnuts will come out is small pieces (need to be cracked end to end for nice halves).
(6) Manufactured in Fort Lauderdale, FL by Carleton Daily, a veritable nut enthusiast.  Also manufactures the de-huller.  Will speak with Zack from the new Keystone Tree Crops Coop in Pennsylvania, who purchased one.  He said they were happy with the pecannutbuster machine; said it operated basically similar to the Patriot (but much cheaper).  They had run different nuts through it successfully, but it would not crack hazelnuts or small hickory nuts (maybe the adjustable machine would).  They do double cracks.