Black Walnuts and Hickory Nuts

Black walnuts versus hickory nuts. That is a funny question. You see I have lived in my home for over seven years now and could've sworn I had a black walnut tree growing in both my yard, and my neighbor's yard. I was the happy recipient of many 'black walnuts'; which I enjoyed picking up from the yard. But that is about all since I could never crack the nuts open. Gee, aren't black walnuts hard to crack open? I honestly think hickories are a harder nut to crack.

Well, a good friend of the Jimster's just happens to have a real walnut tree in front of his house in Clarksville. I thought the large green things were pretty cool and collected a few. Mr. Fix-it collected even more. I asked Mr. Fix-it what the green things were, as they looked nothing like my black walnuts, and he said, "Black walnuts of course!" I'm like "No way!"

So I promptly take him out back to show him my black walnuts. He says, "No, those are English walnuts or something, I don't know what, but definitely not black walnuts." "Okay" I say, all the while thinking to myself he surely doesn't know what he is talking about, one of us is wrong.

The 'walnuts' sat on my kitchen table for a few days when my friend Vonna came over. There they are in the picture. I showed her the 'walnuts' and said "Aren't they cool?" I even pointed out the strange green things Mr. Fix-it picked up (that he claimed were black walnuts), and I showed her my 'English Walnuts'. Vonna kind of got a smile on her face and said, "Tina, those are hickories! Not black walnuts and the green things Mr. Fix-it picked up are black walnuts!" Now do I ever feel silly and Vonna assures me she will not let me forget my mistake.

The next thing I do (once Vonna is gone of course), is Google hickories. I found a website that pretty much spells it out for me. It even shows the different types of hickory nuts, and from it I was able to figure out my so called black walnut tree is actually a red hickory, aka Carya ovalis. Check out the website as it is laid out really well, and simple enough even for me to understand. Vonna was right, as was Mr. Fix-it with his black walnuts.

I next Google black walnuts. I found it interesting that the green pigment is nearly impossible to get off from your hands if you handle the black walnuts. The Jimster figured this out after a visit to his friend's house; where he and two other teens had a black walnut fight. Teens, gotta love 'em! I am happy to say that the Jimster also Googled black walnuts and found out straight gasoline will take the green stains out of his skin. It worked.

Right after all this transpired, there was an article in the newspaper where someone was talking about black walnut season. The article said there is a company that has centers all over the south where ordinary folks can collect their black walnuts and take the nuts to certain processing centers. I found this intriguing. The very next day look at what I found in the newspaper! We here in this local area have our very own processing station if anyone is interested in earning some extra money. I guess money does grow on trees after all.

All pictures show the black walnut tree. My red hickory tree will be posted on at a later date, but it is similar to a black walnut tree. That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

Lesson learned: Listen to hubby more and research trees more so friends don't get to tease you for ever and ever! But good friends get to do this sometimes. The really good news is that I can plant and grow anything I want under these hickories, unlike black walnuts, hickories do not secrete the poisonous substance Juglone; which usually kills most things growing in close proximity to a black walnut. No wonder everything is growing well under those 'black walnut' trees.:)

Any problems identifying nuts at your place??

in the garden....