our pile of walnuts . The squirrels however , not to be out done would often leave a pile of broken shells in our treehouse while we were at school knowing we would find them later in the afternoon . I ’ d be amiss if I didn ’ t mention the broken husks also made great projectiles , useful in trying to keep siblings and cousins from climbing up the two by fours on the tree leading to the treehouse .
On the rare occasion our eyes were larger than our stomachs and we didn ’ t eat all the walnut pieces we cracked , we would take them into the farmhouse and give to grandma who would inevitably bake them into a cookie or a dense loaf of bread . Although there are not a lot of recipes that call specifically for black walnuts , I ’ ll share one of my favorites with you . This is a slightly modified
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Lauten Design and Construction is a full service design / build company , working in and around Western Loudoun since 1987 .
133 E . Main Street Purcellville , VA 20132 540-338-5341 www . lautenconstruction . com version of the Hammons black walnut butter cookie , playing to the richer , and more complex flavors of the black walnut . The great thing about the recipe is you can shop for Loudoun grown and sourced ingredients for the honey , eggs , flour , and black walnuts .
There are some distinctions to understand when harvesting and cooking with black walnuts . The nut at the center of the black shells are not as easy to harvest as their English walnut counterpart , and you will rarely see whole black walnut nuts as the process to extract them , and how they grow within their shell lend them to difficult and time-consuming extraction . When ready to be eaten , the black walnuts will change color from green to brown and fall off the tree . Use gloves to scoop them off the ground , tear the outer husk off and you ’ ll be left with a hard black shell on the inside . Let the hard shells dry and then it takes any invention of imagination to crack them open — hammers , run them over with a vehicle , drop large rocks , etc . You will then be able to collect the small fragments of nuts when the shatter .
Jason Donohue is a Midwest transplantwho spent most of his childhood on a family farm raising cattle and growing corn and soybeans . Jason now lives in Loudoun with his wife and kids where they enjoy tending a garden , orchard , bee hives , and several acres of wildflowers . They are members of conservation organizations and remain passionate about sustainable agricultural practices and the preservation of wildlife / pollinator habitat .
32 wander I fall • winter 2021