# Nut bearing trees



## DampCharcoal (Feb 12, 2005)

Anyone fortunate enough to have nut bearing trees nearby? We have walnut trees but they're considered more of a pest than anything else and the meat is not easy to get at.


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## ronjohn55 (Feb 14, 2005)

My neighbors have a black walnut tree in their backyard that has to be at least 100 years old - the thing is a MENACE!!

(When the squirrels let one of those suckers fall, they HURT!)

Beautiful tree though - may try to gather some up this fall. Also thinking about trying a small quantity of the wood in the smoker. Heard it can be overpowering, though. 

John


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## DampCharcoal (Feb 14, 2005)

I've never used walnut for smoking, let me know how it turns out! I've had a walnut bonk me on the noggin too, it DOES hurt!


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## middie (Feb 14, 2005)

never had a walnut on me...  had my share of acorns though. 
they hurt like heck too.


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## crewsk (Feb 14, 2005)

Before we moved, our neighbors had a black walnut tree. I would get the walnuts & my grandma & I would sit in her driveway in rocking chairs & shell them. Then I would take the meat to my mom so she could make cakes with them. I still have some in my freezer that I need to use. My grandma has 2 huge pecan trees & I go gather pecans a lot. It's a lot cheaper for me to gather & shell them myself than going to buy them. I spend a few days gathering pecans then sit outside & shell them & put them in the freezer. I'd have more to freeze if the kids would stop eating them though!  And yes, I hate getting hit in the head by falling nuts, I've had my share of headaches from them!


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## kitchenelf (Feb 14, 2005)

I'm with middie - an acorn hitting you in the heat hurts!!!!  We have 5 huge acorn trees - my dog likes to eat them  :roll:   I wouldn't touch them.  Where we live we do not have a garage - the top of my car looks like it's been in a really bad hail storm - as do all our other neighbor's cars with no garages.


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## choclatechef (Feb 14, 2005)

crewsk said:
			
		

> Before we moved, our neighbors had a black walnut tree. I would get the walnuts & my grandma & I would sit in her driveway in rocking chairs & shell them. Then I would take the meat to my mom so she could make cakes with them. I still have some in my freezer that I need to use. My grandma has 2 huge pecan trees & I go gather pecans a lot. It's a lot cheaper for me to gather & shell them myself than going to buy them. I spend a few days gathering pecans then sit outside & shell them & put them in the freezer. I'd have more to freeze if the kids would stop eating them though!  And yes, I hate getting hit in the head by falling nuts, I've had my share of headaches from them!



There are a lot of walnut trees here and we had them where I grew up, and I love them!  Wonderful flavor in cakes, cookies, pies, fudge, brownies, etc.  Yep, I was drafted to pick nuts all fall too!  I will do it again when I get a chance.

I wish pecan trees grew here!  I'm envious.


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## mudbug (Feb 14, 2005)

No nut trees where I live, just nuts.


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## buckytom (Feb 15, 2005)

the neighbor 2 doors down has a walnut tree. the nuts are amazing, especially toasted. i have to pick small walnut trees out of my lawn every year from the ones the squirrels forgot, but it's worth it.
the neighbor between us has a huge grape vine trellis over his patio, and i have a big apple tree in my yard, so we share everything. 
before my neighbor's house on the other side was razed and rebuilt, they had a white cherry tree. those were so good. unfortunately, they cut the tree down to make room for a deck.


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## Chief Longwind Of The North (Feb 15, 2005)

Listen carefully now.  Acorn trees are reall called, say it slowly with me now, oak trees.    But seriously folks, we used to hae a huge red oak tree, jsut down the road, that produced gobs of acorns.  Unfortunately, all we have up here is red oak, and it has too much naturally occuring tannic acid in the acorns which makes them very bitter.  Of course this can be leached out through several boilings, pouring off the liquid each time.

That tree both contained nuts and laid them out as well.  Before I fell out of that tree, knocking every bit of air from my lungs for a couple moments, it was a nut carrying tree.  When I ran into it, full steam, while playing a game of cops and robbers with my 10 year old peers (made the mistake of turning around to spot my persuers, then turned around again just in time to fun into that massive tree), it laid out the nut, fully prostrate on my back for a moment until my head quit spinning.  

That tree and I had history.  

Seeeeeya; Goodweed of the North


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## middie (Feb 15, 2005)

we had probably 10 or so oak trees in my backyard growing up... so i got beaned in the head pretty often   
might even still have a dent or two in my scalp from them.


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## wasabi (Feb 15, 2005)

*My Dad has two coconut trees in his yard. Imagine having one of those bonk you on the head. 

And yes, my family tree has lots of nuts. *


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## middie (Feb 15, 2005)

wow wasbai... yours too?????????????????    .
yeah i'd imagine a cocnut smackin ya in the noggin would be quite painful lol


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## SierraCook (Feb 15, 2005)

wasabi said:
			
		

> *My Dad has two coconut trees in his yard. Imagine having one of those bonk you on the head.
> 
> And yes, my family tree has lots of nuts. *



If you want to dodge some missiles.  Trying getting out of the way of a squirrel dropping green pine cones out of the top of a 100 hundred foot tall ponderosa pine.  Ouch!!  So, I guess you could say that I do have nut trees nearby, if you count pine nuts, thousands of them.


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## AllenOK (Feb 17, 2005)

That I'm aware of, the only nut trees around here are some Black Walnut trees.  Of course, I grew up in OK, so I'm used to Black Walnuts, Pecans, and Hickory trees.  We may have some Hickories around here, but I haven't looked.

As a kid, I remember gathering Hickory nuts and pecans, and using a hammer and something to pick the meats out with, and cracking the nuts I gathered.  Sometimes, if I didn't have a hammer, a rock would do.


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## wasabi (Feb 18, 2005)

*Allen, We used to do that with macadamia nuts when we were little. *


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