Forage Fellows 🍄🌱

It's called "black walnut" in most places where it grows natively. You can find some good resources on it if you Google that. The main thing is if they are super hard, just wait for the green part to soften a bit; a few days should be good enough. People have made a bunch of mechanisms to get rid of the husk, but the simplest way I think is to just put them on the ground somewhere concrete or stone, and stomp on them with heavy boots. I suppose it would probably be better for your ankles to use a heavy log or something like that like a giant mortar and pestle. You then want to rinse them with water by soaking them in a bucket. Some will float, and those are apparently empty nuts (the actual seed was aborted). After, you dry them out on a screen for a few weeks. To crack the nuts open, they are much stronger than European walnuts, so most people use a bench vise