Do deer like black walnuts?

[mowin]

I've got a client that has a dz or more of them.  Never seen a deer turd let alone a deer near those trees.  Sounds like I'm mowing a pile of rocks when I go over them.  They smell very citrus like. Wondering if it's good wood for smoking meats.... 

[Culvercreek hunt club]

12 hours ago, mowin said:

Wondering if it's good wood for smoking meats.... 

Very very very strong wood. I didn't like it alone but a bit tossed in to other woods like apple and cherry tosses the flavor up a bit. 

[mowin]

15 minutes ago, Culvercreek hunt club said:

Very very very strong wood. I didn't like it alone but a bit tossed in to other woods like apple and cherry tosses the flavor up a bit. 

I figured it might be a little strong by how pungent the hulls are.  Might have to save a couple of the larger limb when I do that spring cleanup.  

Thanks for the info....

[helmut in the bush]

I'm pretty sure they don't eat them. Seams like they produced a good crop this year, and it does sound like your mowing rocks. I had black walnut jelly once, wasn't bad, a lot of work to get the meat out of the shell

[Ontario Buckhunter]

I have 6 on my property the squirrels love them but the deer could care less.

12 hours ago, mowin said:

 Wondering if it's good wood for smoking meats.... 

You can use it for smoking but the smoke can have a high level of acidity which can cause meat to be bitter.

As an aside:

-The black walnut tree contains a poisonous toxin known as juglone. The tree naturally uses this toxin to compete against other nearby trees or plants for needed soil, water and sunlight. However, it can harm horses and dogs and may even kill them. Poisoning can occur when black walnut wood shavings are included in the bedding of these animals. For humans, black walnut wood and sawdust is sometimes known to cause allergies and asthma. Anyone handling and working with this wood should always use gloves and a dust mask. 

Honestly the best thing about black walnut trees is that if they are high enough quality, mills want them for veneers, and wood working. 

My .02 cents.

[landtracdeerhunter]

Some great points here. The only thing I can add is we dump green black walnuts in the hard gravel driveway to husk. Driving vehicles over them do an excellent job husking. Makes a good dye also. Great $ maker in lumber also. Neighbor sold medium size logs last winter for $800 per.

[Doc]

Every year, I shell enough walnuts for the wife to use in her cooking. I use a vise to crack them. It takes an unbelievable amount of force to crack through that shell. The only thing that will stand up against that kind of force is the steel of the vise jaws, or a good hammer. I cannot picture a deer's mouth developing that kind of force. And then cracking them is only part of the job. The nut meats then have to be dug out of each of the little pockets with a nut-pick to separate the edible stuff from the sharp shards of rock-hard shell. They are not like the relatively soft acorns where once you get them shelled the one-piece nut-meat falls out.

I can't see where a deer would even have the option of eating these.

[Curmudgeon]

2 hours ago, Doc said:

Every year, I shell enough walnuts for the wife to use in her cooking. I use a vise to crack them. It takes an unbelievable amount of force to crack through that shell. The only thing that will stand up against that kind of force is the steel of the vise jaws, or a good hammer. I cannot picture a deer's mouth developing that kind of force. And then cracking them is only part of the job. The nut meats then have to be dug out of each of the little pockets with a nut-pick to separate the edible stuff from the sharp shards of rock-hard shell. They are not like the relatively soft acorns where once you get them shelled the one-piece nut-meat falls out.

I can't see where a deer would even have the option of eating these.

I too question the idea that a deer could eat a black walnut. Even a shagbark hickory shell seems daunting.

I shell thousands of nuts in good years. I'm doing it now on bad weather days. The shelling is time consuming. The cracking is easy with the right tools. I've got one of these things - http://www.masternutcracker.com/. There are cheaper knockoffs but I liked the idea of buying it from the guy who designed it, even if it cost a little more. I can't imagine doing it with a vise.

 

[Doc]

Actually I have gotten pretty quick with the vise. I usually can crack the shell within a couple of spins on the handle. A good bench vise can develop huge amounts of force, and it is always a controlled application of the force so that  the nut-meats don't wind up to be powder.

This year I have gone after black walnuts, butternuts, and hickory nuts. The wife made a cake with hickory nuts. It was fantastic, and as far as I know it is something you can't buy.

But I am curious as to how they commercially process black walnuts. I am assuming that you can buy black walnut meats somewhere, but I can't say that I have ever seen them. But processing any of these nuts has to be heavily labor intensive. Anybody know any processing tricks that commercial producers use?

[Mainer]

Black walnut trees attract deer and other wildlife. The nuts are great food for them and the trees themselves seem to have a pleasant smell that many animals like. A liquor can be made from the green shells. I do not have the recipe but have been told it is an Eastern European tradition. 

 

A good way to usefully dispose of a valuable seed such as walnut is to collect them in 5 gallon pails. You can walk down paths in the woods and scatter them. Most will get eaten but some will take root. I did this with red oak acorns about 30 years ago and I have many nice oak trees as a result. These acorns were carefully gathered by my daughter when she was young. We had a bucket of them so we walked down our paths in the woods and threw handfuls on either side. 

[First-light]

I have a few of these trees her on Long Island. I gathered a whole bunch of the walnuts and sat down one afternoon to cut them open and get the walnut to plant. I was wearing gloves but the black brown area of the nut got through and stained my hands for weeks. In fact my finger nails still have stains. I would wear laytex gloves next time. lol