OT: black walnuts
- To: Multiple recipients of list <i*@rt66.com>
- Subject: OT: black walnuts
- From: B* S* <B*@hsc.edu>
- Date: Mon, 9 Mar 1998 08:00:30 -0700 (MST)
A little story on black walnuts--years ago my best buddy from college moved
to the mountains of North Carolina and bought a farm with two huge black
walnut trees in the yard. In the shed was a bench you could straddle, with
a hole about 3" in diameter bored in one end. You were supposed to put the
walnut complete with hull against the hole and hit it with a mallet. The
nut would go through the hole and the smashed hull would stay behind.
This seemed tedious, so my friend heard about simply spreading the hulls
out on the driveway and running the car back and forth over them to extract
the nuts, which were too hard to be crushed by the car. Problem was that
he didn't understand that it meant a PAVED driveway. All of his walnuts
wound up driven down into the dirt and gravel.
Anyway, in subsequent years the technique was perfected and we spent many a
pleasant evening in winter cracking and eating delicious black walnuts. A
lot of trouble, but worth it.
Bill Shear
Department of Biology
Hampden-Sydney College
Hampden-Sydney VA 23943
(804)223-6172
FAX (804)223-6374
email<bills@hsc.edu>
