For the last few years, our family has taken the opportunity in the fall to “farm” black walnuts near our home in Southern Indiana. Our boys have really enjoyed harvesting walnuts for the opportunity to earn some spending cash. But us parents have found that this easy fall chore has many other non-monetary benefits, and is a great opportunity to teach kids work ethic and taking pride in their tasks.
Plus, it’s a necessary task to get those walnuts out of your yard. If you have black walnut trees on your property, you probably consider your trees a pain in the neck come about October. These trees that primarily grow in the Midwest and east-central United States dump MASSIVE amounts of walnuts. And of course they dump them when it’s still mowing season which can put wear and tear on your lawn mower.
So if you have to get rid of the walnuts anyway, you might as well put your kids to work and reap the other benefits harvesting walnuts brings. Read on for our thoughts!
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Benefits of Harvesting Walnuts as a Family
Over the last few years, “farming” walnuts has become an activity we all look forward to as a family. Josh and I have found that while on the surface it seems like just an easy way for the kids to earn some money, there are many benefits including:
Spending time outdoors
Harvesting walnuts forces you outside in the nice fall weather, and allows you to spend uninterrupted time with your family. Put on some gloves, grab a bucket, and enjoy family conversations while completing this easy task.
A chore for all ages
It takes NO skill (or even much coordination at all) for this type of yard work. It’s literally picking up little balls and putting them in a bucket. Toddlers that can barely walk will love to help, without even knowing it’s work! Our two-year old has really gotten into helping this year. And although he’s not the most efficient little walnut farmer (he might walk past 50 walnuts to pick a specific one up), he still takes pride in his work and wants to be a part of it.
Teaches work ethic
Harvesting walnuts has helped teach our kids how to have a good work ethic. Our rule is: how much money you make is commensurate with the amount of effort you put into it. The payout is immediate at the hulling locations, which also helps little minds directly see the fruits of their labor.
Eliminating a fall nuisance in the yard
As I mentioned in the intro, we want the black walnuts out of our yard anyway. There are SO many of them, and they can be fairly large which could damage our lawn mower. Most people have no use for walnuts in their yard, so even if you don’t have walnut trees on your property, you could ask permission from a neighbor or friend and they will probably be happy you’re taking them off their hands.
The Basics of Harvesting Black Walnuts
Supplies you will need
A nice thing about picking up black walnuts is that you probably already have most of what you need to get started. A simple starter list:
- Work Gloves: A must-have to save your hands from awful brown stains from the walnuts that have a hull starting to fall apart. You’ll want some that aren’t too porous so the walnut juices don’t seep through. We’ve used mechanics gloves, rubber gardening gloves, and even disposable latex gloves in the past and they’ve all worked fine.
- Collection Containers: You’ll want a few containers to collect your walnuts so you don’t make a lot of unnecessary trips to and from your transport vehicle. A few 5-gallon buckets is an easy solution.
- Truck for transporting walnuts to the hulling location. In the early years, we loaded up cardboard boxes in the back of the truck, but recently have found that just dumping the walnuts straight into the bed is much easier. Take a scoop shovel along with you to the huller’s location and you can back your truck right up to the hulling machine and shovel straight into the hopper.
- Nut Wizard: Does bending and stooping to pick up walnuts sound like an awful back-breaker? Then you may want to invest in this special picker-upper tool with a handle (similar to a rake) that collects walnuts with small wires. You can then dump the contents of the basket in a bucket and roll on to another load! There are various sizes available depending on the type of nut you are collecting (click this link to see the options on Amazon).
How to make money harvesting walnuts
Of course one of the best benefits of harvesting walnuts is selling them! If you live in an area with black walnut trees, chances are there is a hulling location near you.
Put your zip code in the locator on the Hammons Black Walnuts site to find the hulling locations closest to you. The harvest season may vary by location, but we’ve found that in Southern Indiana they typically collect until early to mid November.
It’s important to note that the amount of money paid out for the walnuts is based on the HULLED weight. In other words, you don’t get paid for the weight of the hull (green or sometimes black part) you pick up. At the location, a mechanical hulling machine will separate the hull from the nutshell, the nutshells will be collected in a bag and weighed.
As of 2021 the going rate is $20 per 100 pounds of hulled walnuts. To give you a frame of reference, we are getting around $100 for a completely full truck bed of walnuts.
We’d Love to Hear From You!
Happy harvesting to you and your family! We’d love to hear your comments or answer any questions below.
Feel free to share this post with friends who have too many walnuts (or kids who need some yard work) 🙂
Need other ideas for activities with kids? Check out my Adventures at Home section of my blog for more ideas!