Storing Organic Nuts

[Snicker Bar]

Please forgive me if this has been asked a million times. I know acorns are off limits. Here is MS, we are beginning to get many Hickory and Pecan ( some variations) nuts in the trees and on the ground. I have gathered a few from the ground and cracked them to check for rot , and most are good. Are these safe to give? How long will they keep in the shell? And how is best way to store them ( refrig, room temp?) Thanks!

[DarkLies212]

They're definitely good to give! You can usually feel the difference in the bad pecans and the good ones. I've kept some in a bowl on the counter for a few months and I've also frozen them without any problems.

Now hickory nuts, I don't know a thing about!

[Snicker Bar]

Great, thanks! We will start gathering as many as possible. I do remember that Hickory were safe to feed. I just wasn't sure how to store nuts once they are gathered, for the longest shelf life possible. But glad to know about the pecans- have tons of those locally :)

[astra]

It's often recommended to do a water test for wild nuts (eg hickories and black walnuts and walnuts Remove the husk, put the into a bowl of water: sinkers are good, floaters are bad. It may not be always 100% accurate, but it's a fairly good way to determine which ones are good and which ones aren't.

I think it will work only for wild nuts that have a hard, heavy shell.
It will probably not work for "cultivated" nuts, like the ones we eat because their shell is thin, and in my experience they all end up floating, even the good ones.

After the test dry the sinkers very well.
I think experienced/"professional" but gatherers do what's called I think "curing" or something along those lines. Basically what that means is spreading nuts either on a rack, or paper towels and let them so like that for a few weeks to dry and kind of "set." They say that after "curing" their shell is easier to crack for humans and the meat is more delicious.

Squirrels don't really need to wait for the shell to be more manageable do "curing" may not be necessary.

But definitive let the nuts dry very well. You don't want to store damp nuts or with any possible trace of moisture. So you can let them sit spread out on paper towels or a rack for a few weeks.

[Snicker Bar]

Just checked in and saw this- thanks for the info. ! I have a whole new box of pecan and hickory nuts friends collected over the weekend to dry. I cracked a couple and most are good, but a couple had a grub thing in them ( gross!). I would hope the girls wouldn't eat a worm if they accidentally got one??