Walnuts

This weekend I started working on my black walnuts again. I had gathered these nuts in September. I peeled the husks off in October. I washed them and let them cure in a cool, dry place for 3 weeks. On Friday night I gathered the walnuts and set them in a bucket. I covered them with very hot water and let them soak for 24 hours. I drained the walnuts and soaked them again in very hot water for 2 hours. I let them drip dry for a short time. Then it was time to crack these babies open. I got a pan and a nutcracker and set to work. Oh, how foolishly naive I was. There is no way to open these nuts with a nutcracker. I don't know how the squirrels do it. They must have little dremel teeth. Hey, maybe a dremel would work. I might try that next year if I do it again. I set up a work station in the garage on my work bench. I have a cloth to hold things from rolling off the table when I pound my hammer on the nutshells. I used a clamp to protect my fingers. I used a hammer to bang on the shells. I used a sharp nail to dig the meat out of the shell. And sometimes I used a nutcracker if I had half a shell that needed widening. My first walnut took 25 blows to break the shell. With 274 walnuts left to go, this was going to be a long process. At first the walnuts were taking between 10 and 60 blows to break. The walnuts are not as round as the typical walnuts you can buy at the store. The sides are flattened on these. There is a definite top and bottom to them. Walnuts have an equator on them. I was striking at the equator line. After the first 50 walnuts I started pounding on the side of the walnut. This is much easier. Now it was taking an average of 8 blows to break a walnut. I thought this would be a great job to do if I felt angry. You could really release some anger by smashing walnuts with a hammer. After yesterday's escapade with Peanut, the red min-pin who attacked Phyllis, I tried to be angry about that. "Peanut," I said as I smashed a walnut. "Peanut!" "Peanut!" But I wasn't really angry at Peanut. He was just acting like the dog he was. Eventually I decided I was grateful I had no reason to be angry and went back to work. Some of the nut meat got smashed by the blows. On some walnuts I could pull out large chunks of meat. I threw the shells into the trash and kept the nut meat in a pan. After cracking walnuts for an hour on Saturday and 4 hours on Sunday, I have about 5 cups of walnuts and still another hundred or so to open. I baked the nutmeat for 15 minutes at 250 degrees. Is this a total waste of time? Can't I buy a bag of walnuts for just a couple bucks at the store. Wouldn't that be a lot easier? This is all true. I may never do this again. But there are worse ways to waste time than standing in your garage striking walnuts. I'm sure the pioneers and Native Americans struggled with the same task. There is something rewarding about using the natural bounty your maker has given you.