Oh. So we have hickory trees. What in the world do we do now?

Please bear with me, this is going to be a long one.  If you know me, you aren't surprised.

A few weeks ago, Wifey handed me a nut while we were driving down the road.  I said, "that's lovely.  Why are you handing me this nut?"  She replied that the kids (The Big Two) had collected a bucket of them from the side yard and hulled them themselves.  She also told me she was pretty sure it was a type of hickory tree.  She's much smarter than I am with that sort of thing so I believed her.

Husband Pro Tip: If she's better than you at something, compliment her every chance you get.  Also, try to learn from her so you don't keep using such awesome vocabulary like, "thingy."

Or in my case, "You know......that tree over there that isn't the pawpaw, oak, pine, or maple.  No, not that one.  THAT one."

Fast forward to last Thursday.  I recruited The Big Two to collect more of the nuts while I was mowing the lawn.  Once I finished, I helped them and enjoyed it immensely.

Last weekend, Wifey and I relayed what we had done and my mother-in-law (she's awesome, too, by the way) replied, "well, you know we have hickory trees here, too.  The Girl and I spent a few hours collecting nuts off the ground shortly thereafter.

Wifey did some research and, apparently, Buckeyes look similar to Hickory nuts and are inedible.  She (and her mom) have determined that my in-laws' trees aren't Buckeyes by comparing the leaves of the trees.  My in-laws have three Shag Bark trees and a Pignut Hickory.

Once all was done, we sorted the hulled nuts from those that need to dry out.

There were also some that were able to come out of the hulls (outer skins).  The Boy and I were able to remove some of the hulls from the nuts.  As the nuts dry, it's supposed to be much easier to do the removal as the hull shrinks away from the sides of the nut making it easier to try it apart.  Also, the four "petals" of the hull spread out making it easier to open.

Since we'd collected a number of the nuts, we cracked them open to try the nut meat ourselves.  After reading a number of suggestions online, we hit the nuts about 1/3 of the way down from the tip with a hammer against a brick.  It wasn't foolproof.  We will be trying other ways to open them.

We really enjoyed the nuts.  In general, they had a mild flavor with a hint of a maple-like undertone.  From what we've read, they can be used as a substitute for pecans or walnuts in baking.  We did find, though, that the hickory nuts that came from the green hulls had a little bit more of a bite to them and weren't as mild in flavor.

After getting back home, I spread the un-hulled nuts out on a piece of scrap plywood to dry in the sun.  From what I've read, it's recommended to leave them to dry for a few weeks.

I also took the hulled nuts and put them in a basket to dry out some as well.