Missouri Black Walnuts has nuts from the Fall 2024 crop AVAILABLE NOW !!
The freshest black walnuts available anywhere.
Our top-quality Black Walnuts in the shell are washed, dried, cured and hand sorted. These nuts are ready to crack and eat! These farm-raised Black Walnuts are from our managed orchard in eastern Missouri, and are collected by hand. No pesticides or fungicides are applied to our trees.
Which Black Walnuts are collected and how they are handled after harvest has a major impact on flavor. We keep only nuts whose outer hull is still mostly green/yellow, and the hulls are removed promptly. Unlike some other sellers, we DO NOT collect or keep nuts if the outer hull has turned all brown and nasty – brown outer hulls are rotting/decaying and can give the nut meat a bitter or soapy flavor, so we always reject those (and you should, too).
After collection and removal of the hull, the nuts were pressure washed, dried and cured for at least 4 weeks. During washing, any “floaters” were removed and discarded, to minimize the chance of getting any empty or underdeveloped nuts. No detergents or sanitizers are used during washing. After drying and curing, any nuts with cracked shells are rejected.
CAREFUL SELECTION AND PROCESSING RESULTS IN THE HIGHEST QUALITY NUTS.
We remove and set aside the smallest 50% of the nuts – we sell those separately. While those are also fine for eating, they end up being more work for you to shell than the larger nuts. Many people love to put them out for the lucky squirrels or chipmunks. However, this means you are getting the largest nuts out of the crop. Larger nuts = less work for you.
When comparing different suppliers of Black Walnuts, you should make sure that the nuts have been adequately washed, dried, cured, and that the floaters have been removed. We have found that this proper care eliminates about 30% of the weight of a batch of freshly hulled nuts. That’s 30% that you don’t want. Also, other suppliers are probably giving you a mixture of ALL the nuts they harvested. We have removed the smallest 50% of the nuts. Which would you prefer?
SPECIAL NOTE ABOUT THE 2024 CROP
2024 has been a rough year for the nut crop. We are down at least 50% from a normal year. The nuts are generally larger than they have been for the past couple of years, so we are only sorting into 3 sizes: squirrel nuts, regular eating/baking nuts, and XL eating/baking nuts. Get your orders in early, as I expect that we will be running out much sooner than usual.
After washing, drying and curing, we hand sort our walnuts into 3 sizes, unlike most vendors who just mix them all together. The smallest of the 3 sizes, this year about 50% of the crop, we sell as “squirrel nuts.” This listing is for the smallest of the 3 sizes, roughly about 50% of the crop, that we sell as “squirrel nuts.” This is an advantage for several reasons: there are a lot of people who feed their squirrels and chipmunks, the critters don’t care about nut size, they seem happier having more nuts per box, and saving the larger nuts means less hand cracking for the people using the nuts for eating and baking. The “squirrel nuts” are perfectly fine for those who want to use the nuts for eating and baking, but that would be a LOT more work and we don’t recommend it. For the larger 50% of the crop we list them as being for “eating/baking.” All 3 sizes are sold in 10 lb boxes (9 for the XL), plus a 6 lb option for the regular “eating/baking” nuts.
Thank you for looking, check out our Photo Gallery, and please feel free to Contact Us if you have any questions.