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.