Nuts are falling. Along the road not far from our driveway are some hickory; both shagbark and pignut. Wife goes for a walk most every day and me too. She now takes along a bag to carry some home. Funny that yesterday a neighbor was here and asked where were any hickory trees. Seems he found 3 nuts in the road. Seems my wife had dropped a couple of them before she got home. Hopefully now they won't be fighting over hickory nuts. lol btw, 2 things for those who want to gather them. 1. Before gathering a big bunch, crack open 2 or 3 of them to make sure there is meat inside. If not meat, leave the rest of the nuts as very few will be good. 2. Remove the outer shell. Put nuts in something like onion bags. Hang in an outdoor shed if possible. But do not hang them by a string or rope else the mice will get to them. Always use wire for hanging the bags.
How do you remove the outer shell Backwoods? All of mine on the ground are still green, and the shell doesn't come off easily. I just picked up a bunch yesterday morning, we have a big tree that's by the road in the front yard. I like looking at it and watching the squirrels shell the nuts on the ground, but I also hate it because the squirrels attract the dog to chase them out on the road.
I've made hickory nut pie several times. I used a pecan pie recipe and substuted hickory nuts for pecans. They are great, but use a recipe that calls for cane syrup rather than Karo syrup, just better.
If they have the green outer husk you need to let them dry out and then the husk will easily peel off. If you wait until later in the Fall the husk will fall off by itself but the squirrels may get them first. The shell is tough to crack open. I used to use a vice to crack the shell, now I have a big mounted nut cracker. There are some u tube videos showing the proper way to crack the nuts, you need to know the right way or you're wasting your time. After I crack them I roast them in the oven and they are delicious.
Pick up the nuts and if possible, keep them in a barn or outer building. Don't pack them in 5 gallon buckets but rather in bushel baskets or even small cardboard boxes. It won't take long for them to dry and as they dry that outer shell will crack wide open. Then you just peel them off. After that, you need to hang them in onion bags and then just wait. You can wait a whole year if you like or have the time but they really need to be dry before you crack them and dig out the meat. On getting the meat, there is a nice tool for doing this or used to be. Not sure if you can find them any more. If I remember, maybe I'll take a picture of a nut pick and post it.
