How do you harvest walnuts?

Harvest walnuts by checking for ripeness, waiting for the walnuts to fall, gathering them, removing the hulls, rinsing the walnuts, weeding out those with damaged shells and drying them. This process takes up to two weeks. You need a basket, gloves and a high-powered hose.

1. Check the walnuts for ripeness

   See if the walnuts are ripe by checking the hulls. The hulls or outer covering of the shells begin to split when the nuts are ripe. Open a nut, and check to see if the material covering the kernel is brown.

2. Allow the walnuts to fall from the tree

   Wait for the walnuts to naturally fall from a tree. If the tree is small, shake it to remove the nuts.

3. Gather the nuts

   Gather the nuts in a basket or box.

4. Husk the walnuts

   Husk the walnuts, which consists of removing the hulls from the shells. Don gloves to protect your hands.

5. Rinse the shells

   Spray the shells with a hose to remove the tannins, which is a substance that coats the shells.

6. Discard nuts with damaged shells

   Remove any nuts that have cracked or damaged shells.

7. Dry the nuts

   Allow the nuts in their shells to dry out or cure over a space of two weeks. Crack open a shell, and break off a piece of the nut. If the test nut is soft or does not break cleanly, allow the nuts to dry out longer.