The Osage orange of the nut world? Or what?! The skins (peels?) are intensely aromatic, sort of a vegetal citrus scent. When cut the peel oxidizes instantly, and stains all it touches a dark olive green (though the "flesh" turns dark orange.) Once I find my hammer, I will try to open the nut.

Looks like Black Walnuts

looks like a box of black walnuts with the husks on

Yep

Looks like American black walnuts to me as well.

Chilly:

Juglans nigra..."Eastern Black Walnut"...absolutely delicious.  The fanciest ice-cream parlors used to serve "Black Walnut Ice Cream".  Very pricey.

Beware.  The green, husk contains juices that will stain your fingers a dark, walnut brown, and once oxidized, cannot be washed off.  It will have to wear off.  I learned the hard way when I stained my 18 year old hands a very dark brown, while removing the nuts from the husks.  This was two days before I was to be in a older cousin's bridal party.  I walked down the aisle of the church, in a tuxedo, sporting ridiculous, brown, Al Jolson hands.  I looked like I was wearing leather gloves in all the wedding pictures.  I laugh now, but it wasn't too funny then.  My mother even tried to hit me for being so stupid.  Back in those days, kids didn't file charges against parents who hit them.  I could've locked her up many times.  : )))

Wear gloves, or better, wait until the husks dry out after turning dark brown.  Then remove the nuts from the husk.  Get a hammer and give the bone-hard shells a good whack.  If the nuts don't ricochet off your forehead, pick out the nut meats....you'll need a pick.  You'll be there for hours, but the nuts are really delicious sprinkled over ice cream.

Have fun.


Frank

I was about to ask if they are green walnuts....green as in not ripe yet.  We had a black walnut tree growing up and if you take a green one and peel the skin off, it will stain everything green but the old wives tales is that the green "juice" is just like iodine.  We used it sometimes for cuts and scrapes also used it on ringworms.

PS.  Frank, I just read your post and once I quit crying and laughing so hard at the image (memory) of hitting a black walnut with a hammer, I just had to say thank you for that laugh.  If you have never hit a walnut with a hammer, you just can't get a good mental image of why I laughed so hard.  =)

We kept hulled walnuts in a bucket for YEARS and when we finally got around to cracking them, they were still juicy. surprised me. The flavor was a bit more concentrated, but they still "ate real good." It sure looks like you have black walnuts there. Enjoy them with vanilla ice cream, in apple pie, oatmeal raisin cookies, etc.

Oh goody! Thanks everybody!

Here in WV, they grow like weeds. The back road I drive to work actually has patches where the road is stained from them...

It never ceases to amaze me. It is a rare topic on here OT or not that someone doesn't have the answer to. We have stumbled into the garden equivalent of Mensa. I love it.

The traditional way I learned to remove those green husks is to lay the green nuts on the driveway or poorly traveled road and run the car back and forth over them. It did a nice job and did not crack open the actual shell.
And using a set of channel locks to hold the nut being hit by the hammer helps but is still not a guarantee of not being wounded by flying nuts.

Chocolate chip/chunk cookies with black walnuts are my second favorite use, next to sprinkled over ice cream.

If someone has an actual fig - black walnut recipe this will not be off topic any longer. :)

IMO Black Walnuts are way better tasting then English Walnuts. They have a richer flavor.

If you have dogs make sure they don't play with the husks, they are poisonous to them. My friend had to rush his dog to the vet last year because she was chewing on the husk. The vet told him that a dog can die from them. I guess she had luck on her side.

I agree, Black Walnuts are absolutely delicious. No breaking with a hammer here. I broke several "heavy duty" nut crackers and tried the hammer thing too before I purchased a truly heavy duty Black Walnut nut cracker. It's a big thing with a lever arm and adjustable nut holder, breaks them like a charm.

Funny, Barry, but I can see it happening. We always a short piece of an I beam (I have no idea where it came from) and good size ball peen. I have always wondered how those levered crackers held up.

Dale the first one I bought was a knock off and only lasted a couple years, this one is called Master Nut Cracker and is from the person who actually designed the levered nut cracker, Gerald Gardner. A bit pricey but you can't go wrong with this one.

Those in the box are green black walnuts to me. Thanks for sharing. 

Best,
Tam