Nut Processing

 

Introduction 

Across the east coast and Midwest various species of native nut trees & shrubs grow abundantly with minimal care from human beings. In this part of the world much of the ecosystem naturally wants to be forest with high percentages of oak, walnut, and hickory. Each species drops a different kind of nut and each type of nut can fill a different culinary role. Shag and Shellbark hickory taste similar to pecan but are even better. Yellowbud (AKA bitternut) hickory can be pressed into oil which has a high smoke point, amazing taste (no bitterness carries in the oil), and a similar nutritional profile to olive oil. Many of the oak species produce acorns well suited to production of flour. Other acorn species have a high fat content and can be pressed into a high-quality cooking oil. Black walnut has a similar nutritional profile to ground beef. The shelled walnuts have a great taste and they too can be pressed into a cooking oil. All of these nuts are also very suitable as animal feeds that could be used in place of corn/soy.

Currently with effectively zero human encouragement these nut trees drop insane amounts of nuts each fall. Very few members of our human population take notice of this rainstorm of calories and nutrients that fall from the sky. This is partly due to ignorance of the value of these nut trees and practical knowledge of how to work with them but there is more to the story. Many of these nuts require long hours of manual labor to gather and process into significant quantities of shelf stable food. It is common for folks to gather small quantities by hand but very few of us use these tree as staple crops in our diet. 

In order to truly incorporate these nuts into our diets as staple crops some processing equipment is required. We are not talking about large scale industry although that certainly could be done if the capitalists had the will to do it. What we envision is community scale process of these nuts using simple and efficient equipment.

The Goal

To be more specific Living Soil Tree Farm is partnering with several interested community members in Martinsville VA to begin building and purchasing the equipment needed to process black walnuts, acorns, hickory, chestnuts, and hazelnuts into oils, flours, and raw nuts. Some of the equipment required for this work exists out there in the market. Other pieces of equipment are specific to certain species of nuts and must be fabricated from scratch or existing equipment must be heavily modified to suite our needs.

There are other small groups across the country who are already established doing this work in their respective communities. Examples include but are not limited too, the Ashville Nuttery, Asheville Nuttery, Yellowbud Farm, Keystone Tree Crops Cooperative, New York Tree Crop Alliance, Sam Thayer - Foragers Harvest, Northern Food Forests in Vermont, and Wild Woods Orchard in Wisconsin. We aim to learn from and support this network of community scale operations. We view these operations as colleagues and not competitors. 

Each nut species requires a slightly different process but overall, much of the equipment can overlap between various species. The nut cracker we plan to build for acorns will also hopefully work on hazels and several of the hickory species. Some of the equipment is more specialized. The de husking machine required for black walnuts is not very useful for the other nuts. It will take us time to work out the kinks in this process. This will be an iterative process. 

 

Getting Started (a loose plan)

To start in 2024, we are already working on building a black walnut husking machine. De husking is the first step in processing black walnuts. Once husked and cured the nuts have a long shelf life while still inside their shell (un cracked). Assuming our design works how we intend we plan to husk as many walnuts as possible in 2024. Depending on how many nuts we can receive we may send husked walnuts to the Ashville nuttery. We plan to hold onto some quantity of husked walnuts ourselves to use over winter in testing our black walnut cracking machine that we plan to construct this fall. 

Generally, our plan is to build and test one piece of equipment at a time starting with the walnut husker. This machine will allow us to begin receiving black walnuts from the public. At the same time, we are still interested in gathering and receiving other nuts such as acorns and hickory nuts. Acorns and hickory nuts (in most cases) do not have a husk. Like black walnut once cured their shelf life is relatively long. We are in the process of building a simple and small-scale cure/store situation so that we can receive these nuts in fall 2024. Again, the intent is to hold onto some nuts for our own testing purposes as we acquire more equipment and to send an excess on to Ashville where they are already able to process these nuts. 

 

How to get involved 

Right now, the thing we need most is nuts! Once we know our equipment works, we intend to pay folks in dollars or food products for the nuts they bring us. We are not there yet. So, for 2024 we can't offer payment for your nuts but we would be happy to receive your nuts if you're willing to provide them. Getting the word out to folks is also very helpful right now. Many people across VA and NC regularly gather nuts on their property simply to allow them to mow in fall. To many of these folks their nuts are a waste product (often thrown out or dumped in the woods). We would love to put these nuts to use but we need to get the word out in order to reach people. 

As we progress into fall and begin doing this nutty work many changes and updates will flow. Please email us (livingsoiltreefarm@gmail.com) if you are interested in joining a nut processing email list. 

Highly desired nuts:

• Yellowbud aka bitternut hickory
• Shellbark hickory
• Shagbark hickory
• Pin oak 
• Black oak 
• Southern Red oak
• Black walnuts
• Butternut

We would also happily accept:

• Mockernut hickory
• Pignut Hickory
• Any other species of Oak
• Hazelnut
• Chestnut