Posted: 3/18/2008 4:05:58 PM EDT
There is an English Walnut in my backyard. My wife and I are not big into the whole walnut taste (fresh or store bought). However, we decided that they would make a great addition to our SHTF food storage. If you are low on food, anything would probably taste great.  We collected about 15-20lb of them. We were wondering approximately how long of a shelf life do they have if we leave them in the shells? I imagine that they should be fairly nutritious... |
Yep, you will definitely know the taste when they've gone bad. 
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| If you dry them out and shuck them then you can put them up in qt jars. Dry the slowly. My BIL puts a couple bushels behind the wood stove and my SIL turns them over every day or so and they'll be dry in about 60 days. They start to split open a bit. Damn good eats in the winter time. Good for the kids too. |
| Nuts are very nutritious as long as they remain fresh enough. Nuts are high in protein and in fat. They also contain Omega 3 fatty acids which are the "good fat". If you eat too much of them, it can be detrimental to you (too much fat), but otherwise, they make an excellent "nutrition suppliment". 1/4 Cup contains about 160 calories and 90% of your Daily Omega 3s. I don't like Walnuts, but that does sound like a winner. |
A link to more info Google. |
You can dye wool a nice shade of brown with it. That is all I got. 
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your google kung fu is weak grass hopper. Butternut trees produce a delicious and nutritious nut with a high oil content. The nuts are an important source of food for birds, squirrels, rabbits and other small mammals. Aboriginal people used the nut oil for cooking, hair dressing, leather-making and polishing tools and ornaments. Carvers and furniture-makers value butternut wood for its softness and varied texture. The wood can be stained to look like black walnut, which has a high commercial value. Butternuts were often planted close to the house on farmsteads for their use as food. Kernels were used in baking and cultivars have been selected for nut size and for ease of cracking and extracting kernels. They have been popular in New England for making maple-butternut candy. Early settlers used the fruit husks and inner bark to make orange or yellow dye and the root bark provided a laxative. Astringent, bitter, cold, cholagogue, nervine, laxative, purgative, promotes bile flow; was also used by Native Americans as a digestive remedy; affects colon. Also the tea made from the inner bark served as a tonic. Specifically, the inner bark is laxative, purgative, alterative, astringent, and cleansing; the fruit is tonic; the leaves alterative. The green husk, shell, and peel have been said to be sudorific. Its primary use has been as a laxative with a reputation for being gentle, safe and effective, for constipation associated with dyspepsia, liver disfunction and skin eruptions associated with both. Either a decoction or tincture of the inner bark was used. An infusion of the leaves or green husks has been used for eczema and other skin problems. DRIED GREEN LEAVES AND HUSKS ARE EXTREMELY BITTER. The diluted tincture has also been used externally for chronic skin diseases. In Chinese medicine, the fruit is considered a mild yang tonic. Has been used to clear long standing phlegm or mucous. Has been used when eliminating coffee from the diet. Coffee is laxative and withdrawal can cause constipation. Butternut has been used as a gentle laxative to overcome this effect. In Appalachia, the nut oil has been used for expelling tapeworm. Also the unripe nut for expelling intestinal worms. Has been combined with Bitter Root (Apocynum) for expelling pin and thread worms. The nut oil has also been applied externally for sores. Has been used by Native Americans to treat rheumatism, headache, toothache, and also made into a strong tea in compress form as a styptic. The Menomini used the syrup and sugar from the sap as an Indian physic; butternut molasses made in West Virginia served the same purpose. The Meskwakis boiled twig bark to use as a cathartic. The Potawatomis also employed Butternut as a physic and an infusion of the inner bark as a tonic. Some tribes employed the lint-like scrapings of the outer bark to dress snakebite. The powdered leaves have been used to rub on skin to soothe sore muscles and bruises. The crushed green hulls have been used against fungal infections like ringworm. link to info from above two paragraphs it actually looks pretty useful. |
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Don't overlook having a couple fruit trees. Nurturing them into producing even a small yield is worth the effort. FWIW.... <small hijack> For years I have collected/gathered various nuts & fruits I have found in my travels. I make a point of planting them on my 40ac hunk of GOD'S green earth. I have stomped several varieties of acorns & pine cones, Black Walnuts, Hickory, Butternut & Beechnuts into the ground all over this property. Apples, pears, grapes, black and red raspberries & cherrys are in the ground out back as well. I have no idea if anything has produced even one sprig but I'll keep planting for the future. |
Yeah, but it's "specifically vague", details a ton of uses and applications, but doesn't tell how. Nothing about harvesting. If I pick them from the tree, they have this really nasty sticky green fuzzy sappy coating. I have no idea if that is supposed to go away at some point or what. No recipes for any of the stuff they list, etc. I did get this useful passage: "Nuts are allowed to lay on the ground through several frosts to sweeten and said to be easiest to crack open if held perpendicular on a hard surface, then struck with a hammer." So I'm guessing that means a guy is supposed to wait for them to fall on their own and let them freeze a couple times. More than I had before, so thanks for the link. 
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If you want to harvest them for food, after they fall you should pick them up and store them somewhere the critters can't get to them, but they can still be exposed to the weather. If you just leave them on the ground, you might not be able to find many when you want them. I have a clump of persimmon trees on my property, and when they start falling I think all the wildlife in the area must be standing there waiting for them to fall. They seem to get them before they hit the ground. 
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