Minnesota Trees: Black Walnut - Juglans nigra L

Black walnuts are a nut that grows on a large tree in the Upper Midwest. They begin to appear on the tree in late summer and are a green color. As the season progresses into Fall, they become heavier and heavier until they start to fall off the tree

One tree produces thousands of walnuts. Usually the ground is littered with golf ball sized nut. This nut is covered with a green membrane which will color your skin yellow or brown upon touching it. The walnut has a white nut inside which, if allowed to dry periodically, will yield a strong tasting nutmeat, which some people use in cookies

Walnuts are rumored to have some medical content - some believe that drinking the walnut juices will get rid of intestinal parasites and reduce cholesterol. Well. This opinion may or may not be so. A fact is that if you do consume this liquid, you will definitely have brown teeth, since the hull is eventually used to create the same walnut stain that turns wood boards a lovely dark brown color

The walnut shell is sometimes ground fine and added to creams and soaps for use in defoliating patches of skin from the body.

The easiest way to open a black walnut shell is to hit it with a large steel hammer. Granted, not the most sanitary means, but somewhat effective. So, if you are not a germ a phobe, this method is probably quite adequate. Some use their auto to drive over the nuts. Again, not the most sanitary method..

Some cut the walnut shells with some sort of saw and use the slices to make decorations on pine needle baskets.

Some use the sliced pieces to decorate frames, decorate wreaths. One introduced color to the inner pieces and made mini stained window necklaces.

One crafty person had taken a few slices, made a few cuts and glued them back together in such a way that they had a high back Victorian chair when they were finished

This easy recipe uses a box of vanilla cake mix. Instead of following the box instructions, you alter the recipe and force the cake mix to fall, creating bars. Well worth it!