After they are freshly harvested, you can dry and store walnuts to enjoy their flavor and health benefits for longer. Walnut trees typically bear fruit in early fall, making this an ideal time for harvesting in warm weather. In addition, walnuts can be stored indoors and outdoors before consumption and after drying. However, the drying itself requires a bit of patience as it cannot be done overnight, but the process is simple. Here are the key steps and tips you can follow to complete the task without any hassle.
What to consider before drying and storing walnuts
Many people know that by buying walnuts they are essentially buying a pig in a poke. After all, it is unknown what could be under the shell: a tasty kernel or a black nut rotted into pieces. In addition, the condition as well as theUse of walnutsNot only depends on the degree of ripeness, but also on how you dry them and in what form you would store them. So if you prefer to buy such nuts already peeled, you should be able to rely on their purity and the absence of microbes in them. After all, cleaned walnuts are most often left in the open air, which makes them susceptible to dust and other harmful substances.
For this reason, it is advisable not to store peeled purchased nuts for a long time, but to wash them in cold water before use, place them on a towel and dry them. Then you can heat the kernels in a pan or put them in a medium oven for a short time. Only then is it safe to consume. It is therefore best to buy freshly picked natural products so that you can dry the walnuts yourself and prepare them for further storage. Of course, the real winners are those who can grow and enjoy their own production in the garden or front yard.
How and when you can collect tree nuts
Anyone who has seen walnuts grow knows that they are located in the pericarp - the shell that is green at first and then darkens. The degree of ripeness of the nut can be determined by the shell of this nut that has already been peeled. So nuts don't ripen all at once. First the lower ones ripen, and then those that grow on the upper branches of the tree. Tree nuts that have already ripened detach themselves from the branches and fall to the ground. Eventually, spending a long time on the ground will cause them to become damp, covered in mud, and can become moldy. Such pieces cannot be stored for long, even under favorable conditions. Only then can you shake off the tree and the remaining walnuts.
Before you can dry and store the walnuts, you should remove their green fruit shell. This activity is somewhat tedious and dirty, as the epidermis can stain both your hands and your clothes due to the dyes it contains. Therefore, always clean the skin with gloves before drying. If there are a lot of nuts, you can lay them out on the floor in the tried and tested way and let them dry in the fresh air. This is the best option for a bountiful harvest, which can be in the form of any of the following approaches.
How to dry and store walnuts outdoors
To do this, you can spread a tarp or other waterproof fabric on the ground and sprinkle the nuts on top in a single layer. You can then leave the harvest in the sun for a few days. Although this method is old and proven, it can sometimes not be entirely successful. Finally, you need to be sure that there will be no precipitation and a drop in temperature in the coming days. In rainy weather, you can also dry the tree nuts in the attic if you have one. However, such a place for drying should also be warm enough and not damp. In addition, you need good ventilation there.
With this method, you should clean the nuts from the fruit shell, sort them by size and wash them in cold water. Another option is to place the walnuts outdoors on racks with a trellis so they have access to fresh air. This way they can dry out well for several days. However, it is not always possible to do this in wet weather. If your harvest is not particularly rich, you can dry it indoors by spreading cloth or newspapers on the floor. You should also choose the location so that there is a constant supply of fresh air.
Drying in indoor or outdoor air
Air drying walnuts has two advantages: you can do it outside or inside and the method is suitable for any quantity of nuts. Here are some simple steps you can follow:
Outdoor air drying
- Place an outdoor table in a shady area with good air circulation and cover it with a single layer of walnuts
- Try to keep the nuts from touching each other.
- To block moisture, drape the table with a tarp at night and when it rains.
- Stir the nuts daily in the sun for even exposure to air.
Robins, blue jays, woodpeckers and other animals like squirrels also like to snack on walnuts. Therefore, you can add plastic bird nets to keep unwanted guests away.
Indoor air drying
- To dry and store lots of walnuts indoors, you should choose a flat surface large enough to hold them.
- In addition to wooden tables and worktops, flat cardboard boxes, seed trays and boards can be used.
- Adding a sieve or rack eliminates the need for daily stirring.
- Place the nuts in a cool, dry place out of direct sunlight, such as an enclosed porch or attic.
Mesh bag drying
- When dealing with a small crop, you can use a mesh bag and dry and store your walnuts in it.
- Simply place the nuts in onion or other mesh bags and hang them in a dry, airy place.
- Shake the bag daily to redistribute the nuts.
- Regardless of which of the methods above you use, you should expect your walnuts to take at least two weeks to dry.
Walnuts dry in the oven
Again, if you're dealing with a small crop, you can use your oven as a dryer to shorten the process to a few days. In addition, this is a simple and quick drying method that can save you a lot of time. Set the oven temperature between 32.2° and 37.7°C, spread your walnuts on flat baking sheets and heat for 36 hours. Attention: If the temperature exceeds 50 ° C, the nuts may shrink. The manipulation therefore consists of the following steps:
- Begin the drying process within 24 hours of harvesting the walnuts. While it is possible to dry walnuts with the shell on, you can complete the drying process more quickly if you remove the nuts from their shell before drying.
- So, clean the blanks, remove the peel, then rinse and dry with a towel.
- First, sort the nuts strictly by size.
- After that, place a load on a baking sheet in the oven preheated to a maximum of 40-45 ° C. At this temperature the treatment is carried out for 2-3 hours. You should leave the oven door slightly open so that moisture does not circulate in the enclosed space but escapes.
- About half an hour before the end you can increase the temperature to 70º С. However, at the beginning it is strongly not recommended to set the oven to high heat. Although the processing time is shortened, the kernels acquire an oily texture and an unpleasant aftertaste.
- Check each nut for the degree of readiness. The edible part should break apart easily, but not crumble.
- After processing, let the nuts rest in the fresh air for a few hours.
Then pack the walnuts in a cloth bag for storage. The shelf life of such blanks is from one to three years. You can also store the nuts for much longer, but their flavor will gradually deteriorate over time.
Tips for storing and consuming dried walnuts
As described above, fresh walnuts keep in the shell for one to three years if properly dried. The latter acts as a natural protective barrier. Once shelled, the oils in walnuts typically go rancid quickly. You should either eat freshly peeled nuts straight away or store them in the fridge or freezer for best quality. Walnuts should last six months in the refrigerator and a year in the freezer.
If you've had the opportunity to compare the taste of freshly shelled and pre-shelled nuts, you'll know that this probably should be the case. Many stores turn over products fairly quickly. However, nuts from the store are generally not optimally processed and are not particularly fresh. It is safe to eat raw walnuts, but you can take the time to prepare crunchy walnuts and enjoy your own harvest using the methods described.
