Why buy worms?

[Allen Morgan]

I just saw this on youtube.  I'll have to keep an eye out for black walnuts now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZutYfFwm8M&feature=related

[David, aka, "McScruff"]

Walnuts, huh? Now I have to learn how to spot a walnut tree!!

That is very cool....

[Allen Morgan]

You should have them around.  Remember, the "fruit" is a large, green, globe-shaped thing a little bigger than a golfball.  Look for those on the trees, or on the ground.  The leaves are similar to pecan leaves.  Ask around, and see if any of your neighbor's have one or know where some are located.

Most folks detest black walnut trees, as the hulls from the nuts are toxic to plants as well.  Folks with black walnut trees have to rake up the nuts every Fall if they want to keep the grass under the tree alive.

[Joe Breig]

I'm odd I guess, I like blackwalnuts especially in icecream. I didn't know the hulls were toxic though.

[Leo Nguyen]

Black walnut meat is fine after the roasting to denature the poison. Just the external skin and fruit is toxic to animals. It's the plant's defensive mechanism, just like pepper, or thorny bushes.

[Tony Livingston]

Leo, you're the chemist of this bunch and I don't much about denaturing poison, but I've eaten raw, unroasted Black Walnuts my entire life. I pick em' up every Fall and store them for use over the next few months. And not just in cooked foods, either. I sometimes just sit and bust them open with a hammer for a quick snack.

[Leo Nguyen]

You are dead right about the black walnut. What's inside the nut is fine to eat. However, you need to ensure all the juice of the walnut fruit get cleaned and dried first. The roasting of the nut merely ensure the poison get denatured to ensure paralytic and cell death from happening. But since you've been consuming so much of it over the years, I wouldn't doubt you have an immense tolerance to the walnut's fruit. However, I wouldn't try to eat that fruit just for testing your ability withstand poison ;-) LOL I got sick pretty bad once eating a small amount of the black walnut fruit's body. Didn't know what it was fully, thinking it was just another bitter walnut fruit. Bad bad bad mistake. Nearly end up in the hospital for a week for semi paralytic and system shutdown. Not fun..not fun one bit.

[Tony Livingston]

So of all the super-power, superhuman abilities out there, I get stuck with the ability to eat Black Walnuts? No flying, or X-ray vision?? Life can be so unkind.

Seriously though, I do love the taste, as do my sons. Once we get the green hulls off, we allow the black, inner nut to air dry for a few weeks before cracking them open. Perhaps that's the reason we haven't keeled over yet?

[Leo Nguyen]

ROFL! No..no super power..just human tolerance power. You went through precautious measure to allow the green hull/fruit to fully rot off. The poison had dimished quite a bit. Your body still deal with about five percents. You guys are poison toleranced now. That is awesome.

[wag]

     Nice ---- Anything to lower the water PH.   Vinegar & water works good also.

[John Sheehan]

Allen -Thanks, this is fantastic knowledge ! I know two people that have access to Black Walnut trees .Time for visits to them.

[Nathanael Deloach]

Sure beats working an area at night....:-) though I don't use worms (or any live bate for that matter) in any of my panfishing anymore.... it looks to be an effective method, Good Stuff....

[Leo Nguyen]

As Wag mentioned, lowering pH is what pushed the worms out of the soil. They're not out to drink..rather, they're trying to get out of the over saturated soil environment. They were out of the soil at night to feed the surface, as most composters and worm farmers would recognize. However, rather than using walnut's concentration of tannins to flush the worms out, exposing the toxicity  to aquatic and yourself with the chemical compound called jugalone, it's better just to bring a rechargeable 12V battery, and to metal electrodes. Safe for you (wear heavy rubber gloves and boots!), safe for the worms (won't kill them), and non-toxic to environment..well..until you start to toss the battery away..a whole different scenario.

I used to harvest worm this way in the river beds until I switch to vermicomposting. I still do now and then when I want to introduce new worm species to influence the existing worm cultures.