I heard from a guy at work that you can burn the walnuts that fall from the trees (as opposed to the ones that float I guess), about 6 at a time, to build up a good coal bed and they last for a really long time as well as burning hot. It kinda makes sense since the shells are dense. Anyone have any experience doing this?
I would say you would have to cure them just like firewood. The outer husk is nasty too when it starts turning black and rotting. I dont think I would mess with them. Also there is something about curing them you check if they are good if they float or sink cant remember which.
The cured nuts do burn, but it's way too much work to get the soft hulls off of them to be worth it for their fuel value. I know this because I processed a bunch of them intended for eating, and got tired of shelling them so they've sat in the basement for a couple of years. I've recently thrown some on the fire just to get some tiny bit of utility from them. As fuel, they're nothing special.
Walnuts roasting, on an open fire... At least it could give you something to do with them. A mature tree can drop hundreds to thousands of them on your lawn. Probably a lot of work to gather them all, but if you're gonna do it anyway, to spare the mower blades, I'd say go for it. I'd think you could probably get away with not husking them, if you store them in a dry place. The husks will develop some mold on them if its too damp.
Every fall/winter I get a bunch of shells from cracking walnuts & sometimes a few hickory nuts.When there's enough to fill a small box no bigger than an 8" cube,the ends are taped shut & in the firebox it goes. Best thing I know of for removing the soft husks is an old hand cranked corn sheller.Bought one at local farm auction many years ago.Very labor intensive (that don't deter me) - run em through twice,rinse 3 times with garden hose to remove the crumbs while stirring the nuts in large tub with mortar hoe.Spread them out on gravel driveway or a 1/2" wire mesh frame a couple hours to dry.Have to sit there the whole time otherwise the squirrels/chipmunks will run off with them....When dry in 5 gallon buckets or heavy birdseed/cat litter bags they go. Not easy,but better than paying $12-15/lb for the nutmeats at the grocery or health food store. Especially since I have 2 big trees in backyard + they are all around me for a several mile radius also.Every Fall for 3-4 weeks there's 30 ads at least on CL giving them away.
For drying, it is still best to full burlap bags and hand from a rafter. But hang with wire and not rope or string else the mice will have a feast and you'll have a mess. As stated above, you won't get a lot of heat from the amount of work. If you filled a 100 lb bag, you would or could burn all those in just a few hours.
We live in the wife's grandparents house. Lots of black walnut trees on property and in the hood for that matter. Grandma used to make some kind of cocoa cookies and put some walnut meat on top with some icing. When my Fatherinlaw was a kid he had to gather nuts and had a board with a hole in it to pound the nut through and peel off green hull. Then dry out, then crack open. He said he would never do it again when he moved out. lol
I got the impression that burning them wasn't really for the heat value as much as holding a fire overnight. In other words, people were doing it to build a bed of coals for the next morning. I might have to experiment with it to see if it does any good. I wouldn't process them though, that seems like work. I suppose if I get them cut, split, and stacked right away, it might not be too bad on dry time.
