The venerable black walnut trees have so far escaped the blights, insects and droughts that have all but destroyed some other local species.
Black walnut shells are a common presence in Native American archeological sites throughout the east and mid-west and so have been harvested for thousands of years.
Goschenhoppen Historians charter member the late “Abe” Roan wrote a monograph on black walnuts from which I will quote liberally: “Early colonists soon discovered the eastern black walnut, juglaris nigra, a native to North America. The great dimension of the trees made it a conspicuous marker of the fertility of the land. When Pennsylvania German settlers were looking for land, it is said they picked areas where they found walnuts growing.”
“The black walnut tree is a timber producer which has few peers in the local Pennsylvania Dutch folk culture. It seems that it was the preferred wood by local cabinet makers during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It’s interesting that early local furniture of black walnut is often painted in barn red paint made of red iron oxide. Museums of Pennsylvania Dutch life abound with examples of walnut pewter dressers (called hutches), kitchen dressers (Dutch cupboards), stretcher base and “farmers” dining tables and primitive German plank chairs.” Of course, many of these pieces were left unpainted, just oiled, so the beauty of the walnut wood is exposed.
An old almanac in the Goschenhoppen Folklife Library contains a woodcut showing a farm boy with a baseball-bat size club whacking away at a walnut tree. The late Thomas R. Brendle in his book The Thomas R. Brendle Collection of Pennsylvania German Folklore Vol. I records the practice of “waking-up” young fruit and nut trees that are reluctant to start bearing by beating them with a club. The folk practice dictates that the trees were to be beaten on New Year’s day in the morning without speaking.
A current arborist writes that this may not be complete nonsense. Apparently if a young apple tree, for example, has reached the age when it should start to bear and it just doesn’t flower, during the winter when it is dormant a beating with a padded club and a vigorous twisting of the limbs traumatizes and shocks the tree into its normal cycle.
Black walnut trees were encouraged to grow near farm houses by the Dutchmen as there was a folk belief that they “attracted lightening” and so spared the house being struck. This author can attest that this idea seems to be true as our walnut trees were repeatedly hit, but the nearby farm house, never.
When the walnuts fall from the trees in August they are encased in tennis ball size, tough, green shells. Anyone familiar with walnuts knows not to try to remove this shell. It leaves an almost intractable brown stain on hands and clothing. They need to be spread out to dry in some secluded roofed location for a few months. The green shells dry up and are easily removed by treading on them. One might assume that a permanent brown dye could be made from walnut hulls to dye cloth, but no record or reference to such practice exists in the Goschenhoppen or Falckner Swamp region. Roan notes that: “This may be due to the fact that in all Pennsylvania Dutch communities locally produced homespun linen was dye-treated by a professional dyer in the community. Perhaps in the Southern mountains, New England or the Anglo Mid-west the walnut was used for dye, but no evidence exists for local usage.”
Cracking them to get the nut-meat is a challenge. You can’t hit them so they fall into halves as you can with hickory nuts. The black walnut is not to be confused with the easily cracked English walnut, which is much more available in the marketplace. Commercially grown and having a very thin shell, English walnuts are preferred by most people for out-of-hand eating. The black walnut shell is extremely hard and can only be breached with a hammer. Too, it’s best done outdoors as the shells tend to fragment in all directions when struck. In fact, ground black walnut shells are so hard they are sometimes used as grit for sand blasting delicate stone and metal art works to clean them. Too, there’s an internal shell structure, which means only small pieces of the nut-meat can be extracted and with some difficulty. What makes it all worthwhile is the exquisite black walnut flavor, unlike any other.
Again quoting Roan: “The black walnut is sweet and oily, but stronger in taste [than English walnuts]. Some say ‘richer’ others say it’s ‘coarser.'” According to food historian Waverly Root the black walnut retains more of its flavor when baked.
Of walnut cookie recipes there are no end; however The Old Goshenhoppen Cookbook lists what appears to be a Pennsylvania Dutch version of pecan pie called “walnut pie: one large cup walnuts, three-quarters cup molasses, one small cup of water, one tablespoon flour, one egg, and three-quarters cup of sugar. Crush the nuts with a rolling pin and combine. This makes four small pies.” The pie dishes used locally were small, shallow, red ware often less than six inches wide and used in the free standing bake ovens and, later, wood fired ranges.
Townspeople could simply walk out of town and gather walnuts along the roadside. However, by the twentieth century rural stores sold as many pounds of shelled walnuts as they could take in trade. Indeed, some local stores and farmers markets still offer common shelled black walnuts, but often at an uncommon price.
The Historian is produced by the New Hanover Historical Society. Call Robert Wood at 610-326-4165 with comments.
