I have a butternut tree that will have lots of nuts this year. How do I dry, crack and store them?

Answer 1

Get mesh bags such as a laundry bag to put the nuts in. Don't fill them too full, they need air circulation. Optionally if you have space lay them in a single layer. Keep them someplace dry, protected from weather. Now leave them until they dry, which will take a while. When the skins split apart you can peel them off. Next you have to dry the nut itself. This will take longer than the skin drying. Put them back in their mesh bags and wait....... Test every month or so until they crack easily with an ordinary nut cracker. Then enjoy.

Answer 2

There are a number of nut crackers on the market. The following nut crackers are ones that have been tested and recommended by W. C. Donoho, a member of the Kentucky Nut Growers Association, who has an extensive collection of nut crackers.
When nuts are incompletely cracked, a pair of wire snips with the tips ground down to a narrow point are helpful in snipping away portions of the shell to obtain larger nutmeat pieces.

Texas Native Inertia Nutcracker - This cracker does a good job on pecans, English walnuts and hazelnuts. It obtains its power from rubber bands and the nuts are cracked by relaying impact through the force of inertia. It produces primarily whole kernel halves. Around $25.00
Bill Price
P.O. Box 305
Bunn, NC 27508
http://www.inertianutcracker.com/pages/532776/index.htm
Get Crackin' Nutcracker - This is a good fast cracker for many nut types including Brazil nuts. It does not do well on black walnuts or very hard shelled nuts. This cracker does not need to be adjusted for nut size. Around $40.00

Creative Designs
Ken McIntire
P.O. Box 45-1558
Grove, OK 74345-1558
[e-mail]
[phone]
Also sold by Hammons at http://www.black-walnuts.com.
Wileys Nut Grove Cracker - This is a good all purpose cracker. The Large cracking post works well for large nuts and the smaller one works well for small nuts. The long handle provides considerable leverage for cracking hard shelled nuts. Around $50.00
Wileys Nut Grove
1116 Hickory Lane
Mansfield, OH 44905
Hunt Black Walnut Cracker - One of the best black walnut, butternut and hickory nut crackers. It operates smoothly and allows very precise nut cracking, because the piston moves only 1/8 to 3/16 of an inch. It is not easy to complete the cracking of uncracked portions of a nut, but nuts rarely need to be recracked if the cracker is adjusted properly. Around $45.00 ~$70 now
Hunt's Black Walnut Cracker
Lawrence Hunt
Box 3
Hartford, IA 50118
[phone]
[e-mail]
Potter Walnut Cracker - This cracker was invented in the 1930's and is very well built and sturdy. It does a good job on all nuts (Figure___). The Potter Walnut Cracker adjusts quickly to the nut size and the indentations on the top of the jaws work very well to crack small hickory nuts and nuts that need additional cracking. Priced in the $40.00 to $80.00 range depending on model. It is being manufactured by Don Bateman Sheet Metal. (I think it is around $120 now).
Potter Walnut Cracker Co.
Box 930
Sapulpa, OK 74066
918-224-0567

TABLE 2. NUT CRACKING AND STORAGE

Type of Nut Curing Area
Requirements Best Long Term
Storage
Technique To Shell
Apply pressure:

Butternuts cool, dry shell & freeze either end-to-end across longest dimension or side-to-side across widest dimension

Answer 3

Potter Walnut Cracker