Plant Black Walnuts

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NUTS

It's only in the largest of walnut plantations that the nuts figure into the economic picture. However, you'll probably want to collect and eat your own crop . . . and pass some along as seed.

Walnut trees (they are hermaphrodites) should begin to bear within six to ten years after planting. Once nuts start falling, the quantity will usually rise rapidly after the first year. However, the "rule" is often bent and broken: Some years you may get hardly any crop, and some trees may bear only every other year.

If you dry the nuts in a cool place, they should keep indefinitely. Their strong flavor and extremely high protein level (up to 20 times that of milk!) make them a favorite in the kitchen. With time and plenty of trees, you may even be able to gather enough nuts to sell, in a roadside operation or to a local bakery. As a result of our society's indiscriminate use of herbicides — and because so many walnut trees have toppled to the woodcutter's axe — North American nut production decreased 40% between 1963 and 1973! So 25 years from now, when your trees are dropping bushels of walnuts, the yearly crop may amount to a lot more than pennies from heaven.

That's about all there is to the project. If you like to make things grow — and if you aren't saddled with a need for instant gratification — consider farming a stand of black walnuts. With a little care and attention, they'll be adding rings of solid value for you with each year. And in the meantime, you can be sitting in their dappled shade and sampling their nutty fare!

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