Permaculture instructor Andrew Millison journeys to Pennsylvania to visit the lost food forest of John Hershey, established over 100 years ago in an effort to create a new resilient agriculture after the horrors of the dustbowl. We tour around with Dale Hendricks, fruit tree master, and see this food forest thriving with no care or inputs while a town grew up within it.
DALE HENDRICKS NURSERY:
https://greenlightplan...
Nice article about Dale and the Food Forest:
https://www.phillymag....
Oregon State University Online Permaculture Design Course:
https://workspace.oreg...
Andrew Millison’s links:
https://www.andrewmill...
https://permaculturede...
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An informal poll shows that there don’t seem to be any walnuts around the farm this year. There are certainly worse problems, but I usually do enjoy getting a few and making a black walnut cake or something.
[ID: Black walnuts, both whole and cracked open, sitting on a stone. There is a hammer with them.]
This is my father. I was his baby boy. I like to duplicate the good things that he did such as: cooking for children, sharing house plant cuttings, rescuing animals, growing and sharing food, planting fruit and nut trees, singing for people (especially those in hospitals and nursing homes), cracking jokes and being kind. He died back in 1972 when I was a wee youth. I miss him daily and the works that I do are to honor him and my still living mother. Give thanks for life y’all.
How to tell a butternut (juglans cinerea) from a black walnut (juglans nigra) using the fruit for identification.
here since I keep explaining it on iNaturalist
Both species can be found in the eastern half of the united states, with the butternut being more common from the very northern parts of georgia and up, and the black walnut extending into Florida, Loiusiana, and Texas.
Butternuts have football shaped nuts, with fuzzy, and smooth husks, which, when ripe, will stay green for a while even after they’ve fallen from the tree.
Black walnuts have round nuts, with bumpy, but not fuzzy shere-shaped husks, which, when ripe and fallen from the tree, quickly begin to change from green, to yellow, to brown, and finally to black.
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Step one: Look at the husk
Here’s a picture of me holding a butternut, still in the husk.
Note the oval shape, and the soft covering of hairs, and the small specks of white.
[ID: A photograph of a white hand holding up a butternut, with grass in the background. The nut has a light green husk that is shaped like an oval, big enough to fit in the palm of the hand, with some cut grass stuck to the fine hairs that cover it. End ID.]
Here is, for comparison, jeffgarner’s photo of a black walnut that is still in the husk.
Note that it is round like a ball, with no hairs, but a slightly bumpy texture. The brown specks and the spot on the side are where the husk is already starting to break down.
[ID: A photograph of a white hand holding up a black walnut, with fallen leaves in the background. The black walnut is spherical, with a yellow-green husk that has a large patch of brown on one side, and smaller specks of brown covering it. End ID.]
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Step two: Look at the nut.
Butternuts are football shaped, and covered in very noticeable spikes, which black walnuts lack.
Here is my picture of a freshly-cleaned butternut husk.
[ID: A photograph of a white hand holding a butternut, with a black keyboard in the background. The nut is oval shaped, and warm brown, with a point on one end, and deep ridges covered in spikes going down from one to the other, and it is shiny from being wet. End ID.]
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And here is carlingkirk’s photo of a cleaned black walnut.
[ID: A photograph of a white hand holding up a black walnut, with an indistinct background. The black walnut is round, with a bump on end, with flat ridges that curve along its surface. Some of the blackened husk is still stuck to it, and it is shiny from being wet. End ID.]
If you can only find half or part of a nut, you should still be able to clearly distinguish between the two by looking at the texture and size. Butternuts are longer, so they’re bigger than black walnuts, which tend to be small on most trees.
Both are edible, but butternuts are currently endangered, so if you are lucky enough to find one, instead of eating it, please consider planting it, either somewhere in the woods you know it will be able to grow, or at your house if you own the property, or in a cntainer if you don’t. If it’s fall when you find it, you can start it in a pot that’s at least a foot tall, cover it with mulch or fallen leaves or both, and keep it in there outside over the winter. If possible, place chicken wire over or around it, to prevent squirrels from stealing it.
When the seedling begins to emerge in the spring, you can move it to a deeper container. A five gallon bucket (which you can buy in the paint section at pretty much any big store) with holes drilled in the bottom will be good enough for the tree for at least a few years while it grows. In the meantime, you can try to find someone who own property that is willing to grow it, or some other plan. As long as you give it a big enough container, it should be able to keep growing, but eventually (even if that eventually is years down the line) it should be put in the ground so that it can access as many resources as possible for growing healthy.
Butternuts are endagered because of a fungus called “butternut canker”, which is killing the trees. It is very important to grow these trees from collected seeds, so that the species can continue to evolute and possibly adapt better defences against this blight.
and there you go.
If you live in Hanover, Pennsylvania, if all goes well, by 2030-something, there should be at least three butternut (and pawpaw!) trees growing here, that should start producing fruit soon. You’re welcome.
