hulling

Gradually hulling all the hickory nuts. Found that if I sit them on their wide ends and tap the pointy tip, it loosens the hull and then shucks off fairly easy. Those nuts on the left are discards, they have worm holes. I was giving them to my four-year-old to play with but then at one point let her count up her little pile- she had over twenty-five nuts. Now I'm throwing the bad ones into the fireplace.

The grubs are determined to crawl away when I do accidentally open and discover them.

This pile was all I could stuff in my pockets when on a recent walk we found three more hickory trees.

One was a shagbark hickory- the nuts are larger and more oblong

and the hull is very thick and loose, it's a lot easier to remove. These are said to have a sweeter flavor, too, but I haven't eaten enough yet to compare.