Collecting Black Walnuts in Illinois

If you've lived in Illinois for any length of time, chances are that you've seen a black walnut tree. In the late summer and the fall, these trees begin dropping round, green hulls about the size of a tangerine. In time these hulls turn black or brown, and begin to disintegrate, leaving stains on the sidewalk, and on anything unfortunate enough to come into contact with them. However, if you've got a pair of gloves and some patience, you can harvest black walnuts, even if you're in the city.

In Illinois, walnuts usually begin falling from the tree at the end of August. Nuts will continue to fall through September and October. You can just pick them up off the ground beneath the tree. You'll have to compete with the squirrels, however. Be sure that you pick up hulls that are still mostly green. If you allow the hull to stay on until it turns brown, the taste of the walnut can be unpleasantly strong. Go by your local tree every day or two, to make sure you can collect the largest number of nuts.

As you collect your walnuts, you'll have to remove the hulls. A pair of gloves and a hammer is recommended for this. You can also remove hulls by running them over with your car tires, though there's some danger to the tire. However you chose to de-hull your black walnuts, always protect your hands, clothing, and anything else you don't want to pick up a stain. The dye in walnut hulls is very powerful - so powerful that it was used to color fabric and to make ink before the advent of modern dyes. In fact, if you enjoy natural dyeing, cooking a baker's dozen walnuts in a large pot full of water will give you enough dye to turn several skeins of wool or a yard or so of fabric an attractive shade of brown. Cooking the walnuts in an iron pot will give you a dark, nearly black color. Glass, steel, aluminum, and copper cooking pots will all create different shades of brown - from tan to mahogany.