Within minutes of my sending out a black walnut-cracking SOS, Lindsay from Asheville had texted me the following: "For the black walnuts: I use tongs and a hammer on a stump. Tell me if you decide to do this and I will ask [my Brooklyn boyfriend] to deliver a stump from the back yard."I should also note that I only knew about the challenge of black-walnut shells (one of the hardest known organic substances!) due to a book Lindsay gave me, the endlessly fascinating Smokehouse Ham, Spoon Bread & Scuppernong Wine: The Folklore and Art of Southern Appalachian Cooking. I highly recommend it!
(Am also curious to hit up my Arkansas kin-folk on the subject of black walnuts, since apparently they're pretty thick in the Ozarks. Not that my particular branch seems to have gone in much for foraging or cooking; they were too busy being in the Bin.)
Oh, and while they're at it, in addition to the stump, they can bring the tongs! And the manpower! I am, however, soaking the nuts for 2 days in water, per the book's instructions, to soften the shells.
I have Big Plans for these nuts, if we ever do manage to shell them and extract any meat from the pile of shards. Don't look now, but it involves brittle...
It's all erroneous the thing you are saying.
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