Taste the wild side of walnuts
REALCUISINE | Julianne Glatz They’re wild. Their flavor is intense and unique. They’re local – native to the Midwestern and Eastern United States. And they’re darned hard to get out of their shells.
Black walnuts (juglans nigra) may be related to their European cousin, the English, or Persian walnut (juglans regia), but they taste very different: Different in flavor, but also in intensity. English walnuts are milder, with a mellow flavor that can be showcased, but that can also play a supporting role. Black walnuts, however, are pretty much always the star wherever they appear – or at the very least, the costar.
One reason that black walnuts’ flavor is stronger is that they are almost exclusively harvested in the wild, unlike English walnuts, which are primarily cultivated. Black walnuts are grown commercially, but only for their beautiful wood; cultivated trees’ closer proximity than in the wild inhibits nut production. English walnuts’ adaptability to cultivation has made them much more readily available to consumers. The other factor is that black walnut shells are much thicker and harder – in fact, the ground shells are used industrially as an eco-friendly abrasive for everything from polishing dentures, metals and fiberglass to skin-care exfoliates. It’s also used as a filler for dynamite!
Those hard shells ensure that there’s a fair amount of work involved in getting to the tasty nuts. The outer green hull isn’t easily removed, either. The most popular and efficient method seems to be tying them in a gunnysack, then repeatedly running over them with a car.
The black walnut epicenter is Stockton, Mo., where the Hammon family has been commercially processing and distributing them since 1946; today theirs is the only such company in the United States.
“My great-grandfather, Ralph, had a good black walnut cracker in his grocery store,” David Hammon tells me. “Word got around, and pretty soon everybody was bringing in black walnuts to the store. Back then we processed 100,000 lbs. a year; now we do that much every day.” Advanced technology has helped, but it’s still not easy; the basic method of removing the hulls, even commercially, remains based on the tire principal.
Even so, Hammon says “We haven’t really changed the way we do business for 60-plus years.” That’s primarily because of how Hammons procures the nuts. Folks gather them in the wild – maybe a backyard, or a nearby forest – and bring them to processing centers in 16 states. The nearest – and only – Illinois center is in Pleasant Hill, south of Quincy. Some do it on their own, perhaps for extra money for the holidays. Lately, Hammon says, there’s been an influx of people who’ve lost jobs and are making supplemental income by gathering black walnuts in the wild. Hammons also has fundraising programs for youth, church and civic groups.
Because they’re gathered in the wild, black walnuts are free from pesticides and other harmful chemicals. Hammon even says that black walnuts get a range of flavor due to differences in the soil in which the trees are grown, much as wine grapes do.
“We’re the only ones doing this,” laughes Hammon. “Our biggest competition is the squirrels!”
Contact Julianne Glatz at realcuisine.jg@gmail.com.
