Juglans nigra and butternut, too!
Black Walnut, Juglans nigra
I didn’t see my first Black Walnut tree until about 16 years ago. It so happened that the two places I lived the longest, Maine and Florida, are on both ends of the tree’s range. I lived a little north of the range and half a state south of the range.
However, I visited Alexandria, Virginia for an extended time and one day while jogging along a park trail there was a walnut tree covered with green mana. I went back later that same day and carried home all that I could carry (and did so for several weeks.) Then came the hard work. Walnuts are delicious, but they don’t give up easily.
The walnut most people buy are actually Juglans regia, (JEW-glanz REE-jee-uh) or “royal walnut.” They are also called English walnuts because English merchants popularized that particular nut, which is grown in the Balkans. You can find it from Greece to southwest China. The North American walnut, which is smaller and tougher to crack, is the Juglans nigra (JEW-glanz NYE-gruh), the Black Walnut.
Written references to the walnut are some 4,000 years old. About 1795 BC, Hammurabi mentioned them in a code of laws governing food. The Greeks were the first to systematically improve the species they got from Persia. The walnut is in Greek mythology in the story of Carya.
The god Dionysus (Dennis the Menace) fell in love with her. When she died, he changed her into a walnut tree. The goddess Artemis (Dianah) told Carya’s father the news and he ordered a temple be built in her memory. Its columns, sculpted from wood, were in the shape of young women. They were called catyatides, or nymphs of the walnut tree. Three famous stone Catyatides (and one cement substitute) are still standing at the Acropolis in Athens. Carya, incidentally, is the genus for hickories and pecans.
From Greece walnuts went to Rome around 100 BC and from Rome to Spain and France. When they got to England is a bit of a debate, from 400 AD to the 1400’s but the Old English name for walnut also started around 400 AD. The common walnut came to North America via the Spanish in California in the 1800’s. California leads the nation and the world in walnut production. Some 99% of the commercially purchased walnuts in the United States come from California, and 65%, almost two thirds of the walnuts consumed in the rest of the world come from California. The common walnut, J. regis, lives to about 60 and grow, on average, to 60 feet.
Black Walnut
The American native, the Black walnut, J. nigra grows from New England west to Minnesota south to the Gulf of Mexico and across northern Florida. It can grow to 60 feet and can live past 100 years. Black Walnut trees are more valued for their wood than their walnuts. However the walnuts are used in baking, ice cream, and candy. The walnuts can be shelled into large pieces if soaked overnight in water. The nutmeat is crunchy and spicy.
A favorite of my family was the Butternut or White walnut, J. cinerea. (JEW-glanz sin-EER-ee-uh.) It’s closely related to the black walnut and has oval-shaped nuts, with a thick shell with white kernels. The best flavored of the walnuts, it was prized in my family for homemade butternut ice cream. It was one of my mother’s joys in life. There was a butternut orchard nearby. The nuts are sticky, hull easily, and in three segments. And delicious. J. cinerea can grow to 100 feet and live around 75 years and is the most cold tolerant of the walnuts. Like black walnut trees, the roots of the Butternut tree release a phytotoxin that keeps many other plants from growing near it.
The Black Walnut is the most common walnut among foragers. They’re shaped like basketballs two inches in diameter and are usually ready for harvest in late summer or early fall. Try to get the nuts off the tree if possible, and good ones on the ground. Remove the husk and let the nut dry which “cures” it. After curing they can be stored shelled or unshelled. Two pounds of walnuts off the tree will produce about a cup of nutmeat.
To process them, first do with the walnuts what you do with acorns. Put them in water and discard any that float. Kernel quality can be ruined by insects; darker than usual husks may be evidence of insect damage. The water test gets rid of most but not all of the bad nuts. (Check those floating walnuts for edible grubs.)
Hulling walnuts is dirty, difficult work. A dye from the husk can stains your hands, clothes, tools and work surfaces. If the nuts are dry you can pound the hull side to side with a hammer. You can also use a cement mixer with three parts nuts to one part water plus a handful of gravel. Actually driving over them is dangerous in that the pressure can cause the nuts to pop out and hurt someone. Lastly, you can get a walnut sheller. After hulling, wash the unshelled nuts. Don’t compost the hulls because walnut hulls can suppress the grows of other plants. Tomatoes and apples, for example, won’t grow near walnuts.
After removing the husks walnuts have to be cured. Curing lets the walnut develop flavor. Stack the clean hulled nuts in shallow layers, put in a cool, dry, ventilated area out of sunlight for two weeks. A nut is cured when the kernel breaks crispy with a sharp snap. If you don’t cure them correctly they will mold. Store at 60F or less. Ideal humidity is 70%
When you’re ready to shell the walnuts, put them into hot tap water and soak for a day. Next day put them in hot tap water again for about two hours. Then shell. In a sealed jar in the refrigerator nutmeats can stay good for up to nine months, two years if frozen.
Butternuts
As for the scientific name Juglans… Carl Linnaeus, who thought up naming plants and who was the main man at doing so until he died, had a dirty mind. He was an R-rated professor. Many of the names he picked were not only risque — perhaps he was running out of ideas — but one wonders how he came up with some of them. Amorphophallus titanum and Capparis cynophallophora come to mind.
Amorphophallus titanum means large shapeless penis — which seems a contradiction in terms. Cynophallo… means “dog penis.” So the plant’s name, Capparis cynophallophora, means “dog-penis bearing caper.” And while I am no expert on dog anatomy I have seen the latter plant and I have no idea what Linnaeus was thinking. Which brings me back to Juglans.
Linnaeus made up “Juglans” from “Jove’s glans” meaning the end of Jove’s penis. Having collected a lot of walnuts I would have thought “Jugorchis” would have been more accurate (Jove’s testicle.) And who said plants aren’t sexy?
Some food authors, who know little about language, say Juglans means “Jupiter’s acorn” which it does but that is still referring to the same part of the male anatomy for the acorn was named, or vice versa. Then they soft pedal and say Juglans really means “a nut fit for Jupiter.” Frankly, their ain’t no polite way around it and be accurate. Linnaeus was the original dirty old man. As for the other parts of their name. Nigra is easy: That means black. Regia royal, and Cinera means “ash-colored.” We still see those words in “regal” and “cinder.”
The word “walnut” is G-rated and comes from the Old English phrase “wealh nutu” which means “foreign nut.” Variations of “wealh” are with us today as in Welsh” and the name ” Vlach.” In fact, in some parts of England walnuts are still called Welchnuts. The walnut was foreign to the English of yore because it came to them via the Romans from what is today France. When Latin was still the language of the educated, and “walnut” has not been adopted, it was called nux Gallica meaning “Gallic nut” or French nut.
Lastly, the most unusual use of walnut oil: The ancient Egyptians used it for embalming fluid. I like it on salads.
Green Deane’s “Itemized” Plant Profile
IDENTIFICATION:
A large tree with compound leaves, alternately arranged on the branches. Each leaf has 15-23 leaflets; the terminal leaf is often missing; leaf surface is dull with a slightly hairy or downy texture on the underside.
TIME OF YEAR:
Late summer, fall. Husk changes from solid green to yellowish green. Press the hull of the walnut with your thumb; ripe nuts will show an indentation. Monitor over a six week period as nuts will mature over that time. Try to harvest off tree than the ground.
ENVIRONMENT:
Moist, well drained soil, along streams, in mixed forests.
METHOD OF PREPARATION:
Harvest, hull, dry (cure) nuts at least two weeks, soak before shelling. Nuts are cured when the are crispy and snap when broken. Use as regular walnuts. For another application see recipe below.
Walnut Liquor
25 dehusked green walnuts, about the size of home-grown apricots
3 cloves
1 stick cinnamon
peel of 1 lemon (yellow part only; no white pith)
1 quart of vodka, 100 proof
3 cups sugar
1?4 liter of cheap sparkling wine (alternative recipe)
1. Soak the walnuts overnight to draw out any worms and other impurities.
2. Quarter them and put them into a large jar with all other ingredients.
3. Place in a sunny spot, sealed, for at least 40 days; 2 months is better.
4. Shake every few days.
5. Strain and bottle the liquid. Let it sit for another month or two,
minimum. At that point it’s drinkable, but if you can, put a few bottles
away to age. After two or three years it really becomes something special.
Some make a second, less potent liqueur by adding 2 cups
of alcohol, a cup of sugar, and a bottle of cheap sparkling wine to the
solids you filter out of the mix. Let that mixture stand another couple of
months, shaking occasionally.
Why is it better to get the ones off of the tree than the fully ripe ones on the ground? I just had a chance to clear out a public lot of its black walnuts that were on the ground… I could have got some off the tree too, but I thought they had to fall off to be ripe.
Ripe ones on the tree are fine, if you can tell the ripe ones.
Do you still have the black walnut tree? I am interested to buy in the green stage to preserve.
I am having a bumper crop of butternuts this year. In years past, my parents let someone pick them up and they in turn sold them to a nursery for planting. We haven’t done this for a few years though. If this tree is becoming endangered why is it so hard to get someone to take/buy these nuts? My tree is 60 yrs old with no disease.
I have looked all over West Virginia and only found 3 butternut trees they are hard to find, but I have found lots of big hickory nuts this year
I am interested in purchasing butternuts if you are selling.
I have lots of butternuts. I would be glad to share. They are already on the ground.
I would love to purchase unshelled butternuts if you still have some. I used to pick them as a child but no longer live in butternut range. They are hard to crack but a delight to eat. Please send an email if you would be willing to ship some at my expense.
I have plenty of butternuts ready to sell but I can’t find why buyers if your interested email me back
We have a Butternut we will soon be cutting down. If you are still interested in nuts, they are starting to drop now, let me know.
I would absolutely LOVE to get my hands on some butternuts. I have been looking all over for them and they are almost impossible to find. If you are selling, I am interested in buying.
Hello Ruth, do you still have butternuts. wanting them(shells in tack) for crafts not so much for the meat. please advise. I am in South Fla.
Hello, wondering if you still have butternut from a healthy tree? Would love to plant some here. Only canker diseased trees in my area of Wisconsin. Thanks De
Do you have butternuts to sell. Please email me if you do and how much they are
I wouls love to get some butternuts to eat. My daddy planted 2 trees years ago. And my mom had the trees cut down, because she didn’t want them in her .yard. please let me know how much you want.
I have a lot of butternuts that I am willing to sell and ship at buyers expense. Contact me at rietkerkmark@yahoo.com
I would like some in-shell butternuts. 5 lbs or less.
I purchased a homemade walnut cracker a few years ago and the man sent me a bag of nuts: butternuts, heartnuts, hickory, and giant pecans. None of these are locally available.
I’ve had good luck starting oak trees from seed, so I am hoping to try some seedlings of other nuts.
I also have one black walnut and it is doing well, but not getting real large. I do not have good luck with the carpathian walnut (english). They die-back and are subject to late freeze.
I have pinon trees. These are so slow growing and again very slow to come into production, that it doesn’t even make since to start them from seed. These were harvested from forest, balled, burlaped, transported 300 miles from the Rocky Mountains. Then they were put in buckets and healed-in. In Texas they are a popular landscape tree because they are drought tolerant. The fact that they are slow growing makes them an attractive plant because they don’t grow to large and take over the space.
Looking to buy about 2lbs. of butternuts. Do you have any for purchase?
I have 14 dozen in the husk and shell. It takes 3 dozen to get 6 onces
of shelled nut meats and also takes about an hour to shell that many. I would sell them for $30. for 3 dozen. in the shell and hask or $10. an ounce for shelled nuts.
I have some. Are you interested and how many?
Buy shelled Butternuts, shelled Black Walnuts and Shelled Hickory nuts for $10.00/lb . Shipping not included
Grown and harvested in Wisconsin. Just bought a bag of each. Fantastic.
1-920-460-9553
grandmaskitchenusa@gmail.com
Thank you so much Gizell. My mom, Carol, she’s almost 78 and not tech savvy but I got her a smart phone and walked her through how to find your comments and she was so excited to see her first real internet comments. We didn’t even know about this site or we would have replied sooner.
I just want to say thanks again because you made her day. Warm regards, Jay & Cole.
On to business…
Actually mom, who is almost 78, is just shelling now due to demand. It gives her something to keep her busy in the AC when it’s too hot to be outside with us working on the farm. Thank goodness we had another bumper crop last year.
The Butternuts, Hickory Nuts and Black Walnuts are all $10.00 per pound (plus shipping) and all proceeds go to my mom to help her pay her taxes on her farm.
All perishable items would need to be shipped priority mail due to the temperature extremes with the rates below.
The prices are quoted for the contiguous US only.
Option 3: 3.5-5lbs
Priority Mail 2-Day™
Large Flat Rate Box
Price: $17.90
USPS-Produced Box: 23-11/16″ x 11-3/4″ x 3″ or 12″ x 12″ x 5-1/2″
********************************
Option 2: 1.5-3.5lbs
Priority Mail 2-Day™
Medium Flat Rate Box
Price: $12.65
USPS-Produced Box: 13-5/8″ x 11-7/8″ x 3-3/8″ or 11″ x 8-1/2″ x 5-1/2″
*******************************
Option 1: .5-1.5lbs
Priority Mail 2-Day™
Small Flat Rate Box
Price: $5.95
USPS-Produced Box: 8-5/8″ x 5-3/8″ x 1-5/8″
Please let us know what you may be interested in and we can get your order placed and out to you.
We do take all credit cards through PayPal and of course PayPal.
Warm regards,
Carol (Mom), Jay & Cole (The Kids)
P.S. Anyone who ordered last year… You will get a 10% DISCOUNT and ALL ORDERS will get a FREE 4oz Natural Gardener’s Balm, made with local (safe, solar harvested) beeswax.
Do you have shelled butternuts for sale?
I’m not sure if I understand the workings of this website, but I would like to buy l lb of shelled butternuts if you have them. Please let me know
Because of popular demand we are currently out of shelled nuts till March into April. This year’s crops are currently drying and curing and shelling will start this winter for Spring availability.
We are taking wait list orders now to reserve your nuts for the 2016 season.
The 2016 price will remain the same as 2015’s which is $15.00/lb for the shelled nuts.
I am very interested in buying some butternut meats.
MGP
Hi, I am wanting the butternuts for crafts not so much the meat. wanting the whole nut no cracked. Please let me know if that is possible. I am in South Fla. Thank you
Read an Old article on the internet about your Butternuts. Do you still sell them? Would be very interested if you do. Please let me know.
I have a butternut tree that a friend recently identified for me – it gave a few nuts for the first time in the 5 years we’ve lived here last year. Is there any way to help or encourage it to have nuts again? We think it is an older tree, and it was damaged in it’s youth by having to grow through a rope tied around it.
I have a very large butternut tree in my yard and have been giving away several saplings every year. I have about 7 or 8 right now that I advertised on Craigs List and the Parkersburg, WV Bulletin Board, and am giving away. I already gave 8 saplings to one lady about 3 weeks ago and she has a large piece of land in Ritchie County where she planted them. I would love to see them go to someone in WV that would plant and take good care of them. And I would give some of the butternuts to anyone that wants them.
Lorrin, do you still have the butternuts. wanting them(shells in tack) for crafts not so much for the meat. please advise. I am in South Fla.
I’ve read about medicinal uses of the black walnut tincture. So i made up a BW tincture last year using 100 proof vodka. Had a friend of mine that got an abscessed tooth that was loose and his cheek was swollen and he was in much pain. He wiggled the tooth to show me and begged me to pull it with some pliers, but I just could not do it. So I convinced him to swish the full strenght tincure in his mouth a few times and spit it out . He did, and lord love a duck out came whitish puss and other matter and after three swish’s my old friend was not in pain, still swollen but the pain was gone and three days later his tooth was not moving and swelling gone . For months we laught about , but it worked.I read the indians would chew the bark for teeth remedies, and from what I’ve read about it on the internet , I was blown away. My friend was an adult , so small children could be at risk with this tincture. Anyway, that same tree is loaded with walnuts this year, so I’m gonna visit that sexy tree with a G rated intent.
“Vlach” can also refer to an ethnic group. That was how the Romanians were known for most of the middle and modern ages. And just like you said, it has old Germanic roots and it means a foreigner, probably one speaking a language based on latin.
I live in Minnesota and do a lot of wood work in butternut from trees that have died. I never ate the nuts and would very much like to buy some in the shell if anyone has some for sale.
I have many walnuts Juglans regia to pick every year, enough to have a fruit and nut bread every other day. I never harvest the “normal” Juglans regia nuts from the tree. I pick up the nuts that fall when they are ripe. I store them in a dry place and peel the shell away just before use. They last at least a year inside the shell.
I also have a black wallnut tree nearby and never knew just what to do with these round green fruits. Now I understand, you have to pick the black wallnuts from the tree when they are green and peel the nuts out of the green part? Will they rot when left in the green part or is it possible to dry the nuts inside and peel just before use?
I wish to buy White /Butternuts when available. Do you have ?? What is your current price?
10 dollars a pound thank u
I experimented last yr. with a few since it was my first experience with them. I left the husk on and put them on a wire rack on top of my toaster oven to dry out. They turned black & shriveled down to the hard shell, taking on the contours of it’s shape. Come time to crack them open, my preferred tools were a chisel and hammer. At 1st I tried to remove the dried husk but then found I didn’t really need to. Many of the nuts inside had turned black and were bad, some seemed to have a mold on the outer hard shell under the dried husk however, I’m not sure if this was due to them being infected with bugs before I ever tried to cure them or curing with the husk on. Many of them were already turning black when I picked them off the ground because I didn’t know any better. Another small batch I harvested from a healthier tree in a different state faired much better. I could still smell the unique sent from the husk 7 months later. Better to husk then store in the hard shell. If you have a healthy crop to start with, leaving the husk on might be possible if dried properly.
Butternuts still in green hull. Make an offer.
do you still have the butternuts. wanting them(shells in tack) for crafts not so much for the meat. please advise. I am in South Fla.
i offer you 0 dollars and 0 cents…deal?
IF a butternut floats on water is it to be discarded? you mention this for black walnuts, but is it the same rule for butternuts? I ask because i have a dozen butternuts, and they all float. I am guessing I am out of luck. Thanks!
do you still have the butternuts. wanting them(shells in tack) for crafts not so much for the meat. please advise. I am in South Fla.
I am also seeking whole butternuts in the shell for crafts ( not in hull )!! My fingers are numb searching the internet for a source. I am in Colorado.
hello,
I will be having butternuts in oct early oct I am hoping.
if interested please email me
thank you
darwin jr
Cameron I’m curious as to what you make out of the nuts.we have plenty a whole yard full.
I want to buy butternuts, not black walnuts. I grew up on a farm in northern Wisconsin and I know what butternuts look like. I would like to buy two 5 gallon pails of butternuts. I’ll shell them. I know the precautions. ericksonbill41@gmail.com / 262-960-6007.
I have butternuts , English walnuts, black wants and heart nuts for sale in Canada. Individually or mixed.
Rob please post or send some contact info.
jsalt77@yahoo.com
looking to purchase butternut meat
Hi Green Deane,
You have a new reader from France.
I loved the mythological and Linnaeus parts.
But I missed the essential: why is it called “black” ? The color of old fruits ?
The inventory of my mini arboretum:
http://jmvanel.free.fr/hypervert/node69.html
It stains everything.
Has anyone come across a source for _shelled_ butternuts? Thanks in advance.
Wallnut name comes from Wallachian nut.Wallachia is a region in Romania south of the Carpathian Mountains(you probably heard of Vlad the Impaler the prince of Wallachia wich people is mistakenly informed that he was ruling Transilvania°.90 percent of all the wallnuts cultivated in the world come from the Carpathian mountains from Wallachia region thats why its also called Carpathian nut or wallnut .We have the best and the biggest walnuts here that grow the size of a human fist but those are few threes and threatened with extinction .Asside from this basic correction i find the article usefull and convinced me to add 2 strains of butternuts to my orchard collection.
Black walnut hull has semi-popularly been used in tincture form as an antihelminthic.
I have a butternut tree growing in my yard in Lowell, MA!
Denae, I would like to buy some unshelled butternut to plant. I haven’t heard of these before. I would like to try them to eat also. I have black walnuts and hickory nuts here. Thank You
I do have some white walnuts (butternuts) this year. The past couple of years were poor years for butternuts and I was stingy and kept them all to my self. This year I have enough to share again. I will be selling butternuts this year for $6.50 per pound, in the shell, cracked but the nut meats not picked out. Five pounds of butternuts yield about one to one and a quarter pound of nut meat.
I have a PayPal account and this is my preferred method of payment.
I am cracking the butternuts fresh and packaging them as I crack them. When the butternuts are packaged I will send you an email invoice through PayPal for the butternuts and the cost of shipping. As soon as I’m notified that your payment was received via PayPal I will ship. I ship USPS flat rate, that is priority mail, and the package will arrive in just a couple of days, maximum freshness.
A raw butternut out of the shell should not be kept at room temperature more than maybe a week. If you roast your butternuts in the oven at 200 degrees for 12 minutes they will last for a couple of months at room temp in a jar with a tight fitting lid. If you keep raw butternuts in the refrigerator they will last several months. If you keep your raw butternuts in the freezer they will last a year.
You can contact me at rietkerkmark@yahoo.com
Thank you for your interest in buying butternuts from me.
I have some white walnuts (butternuts) this year. The past couple of years were poor years for butternuts and I was stingy and kept them all to my self. This year I have enough to share again. I will be selling butternuts this year for the same price as before, $6.50 per pound, in the shell, cracked but the nut meats not picked out. Five pounds of butternuts yield about one to one and a quarter pound of nut meat.
I have a PayPal account and this is my preferred method of payment.
I am cracking the butternuts fresh and packaging them as I crack them. When the butternuts are packaged I will send you an email invoice for the butternuts and the cost of shipping. As soon as I’m notified that your payment was received via PayPal I will ship. I ship USPS flat rate, that is priority mail, and the package will arrive in just a couple of days, maximum freshness. 5 pounds fit in a medium USPS flat rate box, 10 pounds fit in a large USPS flat rate box.
A raw butternut out of the shell should not be kept at room temperature more than maybe a week. If you roast your butternuts in the oven at 200 degrees for 12 minutes they will last for a couple of months at room temp in a jar with a tight fitting lid. If you keep raw butternuts in the refrigerator they will last several months. If you keep your raw butternuts in the freezer they will last a year. I recommend that you pick your butternuts when you receive your order, and put them in the freezer, in a mason jar with a tight lid.
So when you let me know how many nuts you would like I will get crackin.
My contact information is rietkerkmark@yahoo.com
Kind regards,
Mark A RietKerk
If you have some butternuts could you please call me.? Or email me.? I have looked and looked for some. My grandma used to make a butternut cake that I just love. Would really like to get some nuts shelled preferably.
Looking for butternuts for my 81 yr old father
I am looking to buy unripe white walnuts or butternuts to make a drink similar to the one I use to make nocino from black walnuts. Do you have some or where can I get them. I am in Amherst, Mass. Thanks. Professor Stoffolano
I am looking to buy a Butternut sapling. I live in MA (Zone 6). Anyone know where one acclimated to NE is for sale?
I live in Northern California. We had a lot of quite large black walnut trees on our acreage. They seemed very hardy, and cold tolerant, and I always had dozens of seedlings growing up from under the mature trees.
Needless to say, I find the nuts to be far tastier than the English thin shelled ones, but the shells are thick, absolutely rock hard, and make extracting the well protected nutmeats a chore. Unfortunately, the mature trees were all burned back to the roots by the recent Zogg fire, so no more seedlings for a while.
What I really would like to get started are the butternuts I have read about above from all your comments. I like the idea that they are also cold tolerant, hopefully easier to shell (gotta be!) and also quite tasty. Can somebody who knows how tell me how I can get either the pollinated nuts or seedlings to plant? Thanks.
I am looking for butternuts.I will buy them shelled or not.I love the flavor and have not been able to find any for years