Thanks very much - you have a real gift for explaining things very simply and to the point. I really appreciate you taking the time to teach me how to harvest and prepare hickory nuts. In have hickory trees all over my farm and now I’m going to harvest them. Thanks again!
I had been wondering about these nuts every fall for the last 3 years. Today I figured I'd bring one inside and ID it. Now I wish I would have done it 3 years ago. They are delicious! Thanks for the advice on sorting and drying.
I realize this video is several years old.....but my kids and I just discovered hickory nuts on a hike! My adventurous daughter and I tried them and oh my goodness they're good! They reminded me of butter pecan flavored things -- very sweet and buttery. I wish we could buy them because the cracking process is hard!
Great video! We just harvested some for the first time today. I had never heard about doing the water test! Glad I found your video! Great tips! Glad I have a laundry bag to dry them with too! We filled a half bushel basket just with the nuts we husked today! Thanks!
Great video. Up here in new england, we only have shagbark, no shellbarks. This brings back a lot of memories of me and my grandma, who grew up during the great depression, foraging in new hampshire for hickories.
Shagbark and shellbark hickories are actually two different species. The trees look similar, but shellbark nuts are almost the size of black walnuts. If you can find a grove of shellbark hickories, you have found a "gold mine." Not only just for the nuts, but for the very best location for squirrel hunting in that area. Be vigilant as to when the nuts are ripe and begin to fall. If you are not, the squirrels will have them all. Southeast Iowa.
Thanks for the great tutorial on harvesting and storing hickory nuts! My girlfriend's family has some shagbark hickory trees in their yard in Ohio. We'll have to try it out next year. All the best - Dylan
Just moved from CA to TN where I have 1.5 acres now and noticed a few trees dropping these "rotten lime" looking things so outta curiousity researched it by picture and found I have some hickory nut trees.. followed this video and collected fallen onces, husked em and h2o tested em.. then visually inspected em and threw em in a wire mesh trash can and hung em in the garage. Ive learned that the husks can be saved and used as wood chips for a smoker. I put the quartered husks in a zip top bag and smashed em with a hammer to use as chips in my vertical propane smoker and the smoke is sweeter. One downsize ive heard is theyre a bitch to harvest the meat.. I dont know how folks in rural areas consider things but for someone like me to move from almost downtown LA to a place that i have woods and some property I am investigating everything and want to use my land. I dont have acres and acres a d havent lived on a large plot of land so for some it may seem stupid but my 1.5 acres coming from a big ciry living dude seems like a lot of land that I want to maximize the use out of. I keep in touch here and there with the previous owners and it sounded like beyond their yard they never really gave a shit to explore their wooded area, the wife knew about the "rotten looking lemons" but they never checked it out. I felled a standing dead tree, bucked it into 8ft sections to haul out of a gully with my truck and then bucked em into 16" logs and split em.. now i have firewood for the stone firepit i also recently build. Again my 1.5 acres is a huge plot of land to me and the fact that I can harvest resources from it is amazing compared to living in the city.. i am somewhat a woodworker and mechanically inclined so im not some yuppy CA dude, i had grandparents from Southern AR who were hard asses that raised my mom as a hard ass and she raised me with that old school mentality.. Sorry for the whole novel but when my nuts are ready i think i want to make some hickory nut brittle as i dont think i have enough for a pie and i dont want the flavor of the nut to be lost in sugar. Also went to culinary school so I want the hickory nut to be the star of the show. Knowing what i know now bout the nut i will definately be harvesting them next year as opposed to wondering what the hell those rotten limes are that keep fallen LOL.
Very helpful and informative video - saving it for future reference! Hickory crop at my house looks great this year, and I am excited to know how to preserve them.
Mike thanks for the useful and thoughtful video. You really educated me and I am looking forward to harvesting them for my family. Many thanks for a top notch video
My family has a 161 year old farm with one lone nut tree in the middle of the fields. We rent the fields and use the house like a cottage This year my daughter and I finally lucked out and found the tree overflowing with nuts. Some were on the ground but mostly we picked them. The ones on the ground were opening already. I haven't had these in about 50 years! I'll keep up on it now.
you might want to plant a couple more hickory then if the squirrels haven't. Hickories take about 25 years to start fruiting, and they fruit for about 125 years. I suspect if that tree was planted when that farm was cleared, she''s getting towards the end of her fruiting age. If she's older than the farm, then you have even less time.
I didn't know that much about how to tell the good nuts from the bad. I have one tree on our property which is good that I know of and may have others which is producing nuts, but I have not checked lately. I thank you for showing us what to look for and I need to check for the good nuts. I also have to check and put up the black walnuts also as we have plenty of them on the property.
We have both shellbark and shagbark hickories growing here in SW Ontario, Canada... No one picks them anymore but the older people remember... I picked a huge sack of shellbarks, husked them, cured them and now am in the process of opening them and getting the nut meat out.... After you eat these babies, you'll never eat pecans of walnuts again... They are that delicious!
ABSOLUTELY! Hands down the best but you can forage for and eat! Put those on some brownies or ice cream!!! BE CAREFUL TJEY ARE ADDICTING! Thanks for watching!
Mike, I live on property with a grove of shagbark hickory trees that I believe were planted by Indians way back. This year they are loaded with nuts. I've never tried to harvest and eat the nuts, but your video makes me want to try this year. We have about 8 huge old trees!
Yes, the shells can substitute or augment hickory wood for grilling/smoking. They also burn well as fuel in BBQ or fireplace. They also make great mulch/compost.
Great video. I've been working all afternoon on my pignut hickory nuts, a species with a thick outer husk. I drop them in boiling water for 30-60 seconds before peeling. Then I can continue as you describe.
Fond memories of going out back in my woods that were full of shag bark hickory, gathering up a bunch of nuts and sitting down against a tree. I could crack a nut if I had three in my hand. I'd sit there and eat hickory nuts and shoot squirrels! As a side note; squirrels from a hickory tree are a lot better tasting than from oak. (Is what I've found). On preserving the nuts... I was out hiking one day in January and in the path was what looked like a squirrel nest. On a closer look, it was full of hickory nuts! they must of been "squirreled" away for later. We had some very bad storms in late December and it must of been blown out of the tree. I grabbed a nut and went on, when getting back to my truck, I cut opened the nut and found it shrunken but solid, I gave it a taste.... WoW! it tasted like a chunk of butter! So, I guess the squirrels have this process down pat! LOL!... Thanks for the Vid and bringing back some great nutty memories! iggy
I have used nuts out of the hull, you will find out though that most of them are bad or have been contaminated. Especially if they have been rained on, it causes the nut to mold and more times than not, have destroyed them. Best I can tell you is if it looks good, not moldy or real dirty, float it and examine afterwards. If the nut is soaked through from a rain however it will still sink even if its bad. I mostly only use the ones that are still in the hull. Good luck
Thanks Mike I started walking in a local park and saw a man collecting a whole bag of these and it peaked my curiosity so the next day I decided to bring some home to find out what they were. I'm so thrilled I could eat something right from a local tree. do you do any other nut videos? There are a variety of other nuts and i'm not sure what they are and how to prepare them as you indicated with the Hickory Nut.
I don't have any other videos on nuts however there are many trees you can harvest from. These are my all time favorites and after you try a few I'm sure this will be your primary focus also. Thanks for watching, Mike.
They have a flavor reminiscent of fresh maple syrup, excellent to mix with sheep's head mushrooms and fresh unfrozen venison tenderloin grilled with wood charcoal and a couple of dried Hickory branches
Can you put them in the oven to speed up the drying process? I have an outdoor grill that I can keep at a low temp, say 100 degrees for several hours. Would that work?
I was wondering. How does storing bad nuts with good nuts make the good nuts bad? I collected about 1500 hickory nuts this year( bumper crop this year 2017) and I have them all in one pile but did not water check them. They have been together since about mid october and it is now Dec 3rd. Is it to late to water check them for bad nuts?
I finally found a decent nutcracker that is able to crack the hard shells of hickory and black walnut. There are very few nutcrackers out there that will do the job efficiently.
Thank you very helpful.My honey is originally from Ohio and he hasn't had hickory nuts in a long time and loves them.I am going to buy some hickory nuts either off of a eBay seller,or on Amazon.com.Not sure what State to buy them from so if you have any suggestions I would appreciate it.Nice hickory nuts you have there.Take care,Pia&Hobo kitty.
We have a hickory tree but the squirrels get to it before we do. The hulls are still quite green and soft and and don't open easy but the squirrels are after them already. Should we harvest them now and let them dry? Also many years the nuts are empty when opened. Do we need 2 trees? Thanks for the memories....when my dad found hickory nuts in the wild, he was an expert an cracking them and the meats were left whole. He sat at the kitchen table every evening and a coffee can of hickory nut meats for Christmas was the best present he could give.
For some reason a squirrel will just chew the husk a few times then drop them. If they haven't chewed on the actual nut I hull them and throw them in the bucket for sorting.
Good informative video. I think I'm going to go foraging for some. Do you know about what time of year is best to harvest them? I'm in the southern Ohio area.
Have you ever had issues with your nuts developing hairline cracks after drying? We are having issues with this...like, every single nut...and I'm unsure about storing them, as I'm unsure if they'll last. Our shagbark nuts did not develop the cracks but our shellbark nuts did.
yeah as the author said, they go bad really quick. You can typically tell just by the color (white=fresher) and by the weight (heavier=fresher). But as he said, if its rained within the past 3 days I wouldnt mess with them.
Mike, I walk at the State Park in NW Ohio...I noticed lots of hickory nuts a few weeks ago, took a few home and opened and ate some tasty meat...I put more in a bag in the fridge in the next couple weeks. Today I cracked open a few and they seem to have spoiled, no tasty fruit, but brown and not good looking...I thought they would be ok in the fridge for a while, but looks like I was wrong. Any hints?
Unshelled nuts in frig are probably undergoing their germination process (cold stratification) and will change state and loose flavor in the process. Hickory nuts for eating should be collected and dried as in this video then shelled out. The nut meat can then be frozen or refrigerated for longer term storage.
Sir, I found this tree with these nuts in it just like yours in this video and just learned today they are hickory nuts. They are all over my yard! I now know I've come to understand this is a mixed blessing since they also do a number on the roof of my car in my driveway when they fall but I digress. I brought a few in the house today and cracked and ate what I could gather in the inside, which is so difficult to access. What can I do (after following the steps in your video of course) in order to open them effectively for eating?
Check out the videos on cracking them. They're a pain to crack (just as bad as black walnuts!) and it's good to have one of those nut picks you see during the holidays to lever 'em out. Takes yr's of practice!
do you have to worry about worms getting in them after you've done the water test & dried them? do you have to add something to keep insects or worms out of them?
Not if you keep them in a cool, dry place (not in the refrigerator!). Of course, they don't keep forever and should be eaten before they go rancid or lose flavor. And don't weevils eventually get into most everything? The eggs for the caterpillars/worms seen in the nuts and husks are usually lain during flowering or early development of the nut on the tree.
I just use a small hammer, there is no good way to get hickory nut apart. I have only gotten a few whole ones in all of the years i have harvested them!
Basically the same process except the non-segmented walnut husks don't come off nearly as easy. Water test and dry the unhusked nuts the same way as in this video.
Hey can I get some of the fresh Hickory nuts from you? So far I have not been able to find any fresh ones here in Texas. I have been wanting this tree for years now among a few others. There is a butter nut and a heart nut etc.
I have about 50 I collected in the SW Pennsylvania woods behind my house, but that was before I researched what they were. Wish I would've seen this video sooner, I have some sitting on a windowsill between the screen and the window and some laying on a lounge chair, do you think it's still possible to do the water test? I planted a few of them in my backyard also (3 nuts per spot) so hopefully they'll sprout in the spring. Pam I could probably send you a few if they're still good.
Ryan Gandelman not sure about water testing them after they have been drying, I would say it wouldn't work and they would possibly all float. I was always told to do them as soon as you harvest them. I say just crack them now and visually inspect them. BEST EATING EVER!
Pammy B Hello,eBay has sellers in different states that sell hickory nuts and black walnuts.I am also looking to buy hickory nuts from an eBay seller.Good luck.Good video here showing us how to clean and dry them.More video's on UTUBE how to clean and crack to eat them,etc.Good luck finding some good nuts.I'm still looking.Take care,Pia&Hobo kitty in Ca.
