Butternuts

[RanchsA]

Hi all. Wondering if anyone had any tips for prepping our butternuts. We husked a bunch of them yesterday and have set them out to dry. I've read a few things on the internet saying to let them cure for weeks. I have a squirrel population that I have a feeling isn't going to give me that much time. I was wondering if anyone has had any luck cracking them and dehydrating on a food dehydrator or oven to speed up the curing process and keep them out of the clutches of the squirrels. I'd go the route of squirrel stew but they have gotten wise to me and bb gun and clear out as soon as we make our appearance.

[Eugene]

Black walnuts, I use an old metal pet cage to dry hulled and washed nuts. Cage has openings to small for squirrels. Cage is set up on bricks, out of the sun most of the day and available to any breezes. Depending on the weather, nuts are dried for several days.

To cure the black walnuts, I use old plastic milk crates with all openings to small for squirrels except the hand hold openings. I put the dry walnuts in the milk crates, Cover the hand hold openings from inside with pieces of manila folder then fill the crates to the top. The milk crates stacked with 2 x 4's under the bottom crate to keep it off the porch floor. I made a wooden cover for the top crate. Crates are stored outside on the front porch where they are out of the rain and with access to the wind.

I let the black walnuts cure for 2 or more months. Night time winter activity, cracking and picking out the meats.

If you have old window screens, you can make sides and a cover. Set on saw horses.

I use the same process for pecans.

Lot of squirrels in this area also. They will come up on the porch trying to get at the nuts.

There were several butternut trees on the acreage when we purchased it. The blight killed them.

Microwave or dehydrator to cure nut meats, I don't know.

[v w]

Don't know about butternuts but black walnuts I crack while still quite wet and dry in a shallow pan in the kitchen. I prefer cracking them before they are completly dry. We then freeze. Haven't had butternuts in years. Dad used to have a few trees. Try making a pie using butternuts instead of pecans. As I recall it was pretty good. Vern

[RanchsA]

Thanks for the replies Eugene and Vern. This is my first nut harvest, trying to get a feel for it still. We bought the house a year ago and have two trees I'm told are butternut. One definitely is it has large "lemons" for fruit. The other has fruit a touch smaller but still oval in shape. Lots of seedlings around the two of them at the edge of the field so I've been trying to keep those transplanted as much as possible as well before they become chisel plow casualties (not a real common tree around me either, these two are actually the first I've ever seen). We have a bunch of black walnuts in the yard as well I have just been piling up those up at the back of the to be pasture where there is a young stand of them sprouting up. Hoping those easy pickings will keep the squirrels away from the ones I have stashed next to the house.
From Eugene's response I think I'm getting drying and curing mixed up. After washing them up I go through the drying phase correct? Should this only be a couple day process? Then I can move them to a crate type container rather than laid out in a single row? I'm going to grab some 1/4x1/4 wire mesh tonight and make a frame for them to try and keep my competition out. Can the curing process take place in a less drafty location say the barn or my basement?

[Eugene]

Discussing black walnuts.

Nuts are picked up with a nut wizard after the hulls are crushed in the drive way by driving a vehicle over the nuts. After the hulls have been crushed and dried in the drive way, there is still a lot of debris on the nuts.

Washing black walnuts in a 5 gallon pail helps remove some of the hull residue. The washed nuts are dried in a squirrel proof frame until the shell is dry. If the nuts are not dry they will mold. You do not want walnuts more than 3 deep during the drying process. After the nuts have been dry for several days they are transferred to the milk crates for curing.

During a decent black walnut harvest season I will have 4 or 5 milk crates sitting on the porch, curing. The small animal cage I use for drying is about 4' X 4' X 18". I don't have a location big enough to use the cage for the curing process.

Depending on how many butternuts you have you could use the drying frames as curing frames.

I would use the barn for the curing process and not the basement. My basement has high humidity.

There is a lot of information and resources available on the internet on black walnuts. Butternuts, I don't know. Butternuts are a close relative to black walnuts, I'm assuming the process should be the same.

I use the equipment I have on hand to process black walnuts. Didn't purchase anything.

On a drive from Missouri to central Iowa I saw a guy using a cement mixer to wash black walnuts.

[RanchsA]

Thanks Eugene. I'll give that a run. Yeah the butternut info I have found has pretty much just been them mentioned with black walnut prepping.
I'll get my frames built and start them to drying/curing. I think if I do a couple frames 2'x4' I can get everything we did this year into them. I have scrap wood laying around for that so I'll only be out 9 bucks for the wire mesh. I can live with that. Especially if everything turns out when I'm finished.
Oh and Vern forgot to mention before, I'll definitely try the butternut pie. Big fan of pecan pie and never even thought to try and use them for that.
Thanks again!