#hickory nuts

[geopsych]

I’ve been following this treasure hunt Nature put out and I think I can guess where it leads.

[janewilsonrva]

Going Nuts!

Henrico County, Virginia (USA)

Photo from August 3, 2025.

August is when the Mockernut Hickory nuts start dropping.

[los-plantalones]

‘twas a great day for a foraging walk! the late summer shrooms are fruiting and the fall nuts are almost ready.

surprisingly, everyone was the most excited about oxalis which i did NOT expect. we also cleared out a bunch of garlic mustard so that’s a big win for that patch of woods 🤘🏽

[pragmatic-particle]

I was so busy today!

[freshtendril]

A Winters Work • the lost art of wild nuts

Does anyone remember how your grandparents or maybe even some parents out there had a bowl of whole, in-the-shell nuts beside their evening chair in front of the television or in front of the fire? There would be different cracking tools and picks as they were tough nuts to crack, literally. There was a time where indigenous and settler peoples collected native nuts to shell over the fall and winter. This was used as important nourishment during the winter months where food was a bit more difficult to come by. The slower time allowed for things such as cracking nuts.

I collected these shagbark hickory nuts last fall. Sadly, out of about 100 nuts, only 3 had good nutmeat and they were oh so good. But the rest were underdeveloped, dried out or had weevil grubs. We are fortunate to have orchard-farmed and pre-shelled and nuts.

[continent-of-wild-endeavor]

I'm usually pretty good about hyping up unfamiliar produce to customers, even if it's something I don't personally love, because it's good to try new things, right?

But yesterday somebody went "Ooh, hickory nuts? What do you do with those?"

And I just said "Struggle."

[journiland]

Though I feel a bit tired today, I got a lot of little outside things done. Picked the frost-intolerant herbs (lemon verbena and basil) (hey, wait, do I have stevia out there?🤔 Will have to check. Oops.) and put in the dehydrator. Cleaned up the garden some. Pulled up all the turnips and rutabaga.

Not sure I'll grow them again. A lot were too small to mess with, plus I'll have to peel, because the outsides look a bit insect-damaged, PLUS I think they're going to be woody. (I probably should have picked sooner, but then they'd have been even smaller.)

Youngest and I collected a gallon of shagbark hickory nuts and hulled them with the mortar and pestle. We ended up with maybe two cups of nuts in shells, which will probably be less than half a cup of nut meats. (You're supposed to let them dry in the shells for a few days, so I'll update when we open them.)

[morethansalad]

Kanuchi (Vegan Cherokee Pureed Nut Soup)