Black walnuts cluttering the yard? To hull with them

There are 13 stations in Ohio where black walnuts are bought and hulled.
MARYSVILLE, Ohio (AP) -- Don Cullman counted out the hard-earned cash with his black-stained fingers and placed it in the boy's open hand.
Six-year-old Morgan Kessler smiled proudly at his reward for picking up the mess that had fallen from the black-walnut trees in his parents' pastures.
"You have 58 pounds at 11 cents a pound," Cullman said. "That's $6.38 in walnuts."
Autumn's black-walnut harvest brings visitors from across the region to Cullman's Union County tree farm. They arrive with bulging bags -- sometimes truckloads -- of nuts. Cullman's is one of 13 stations in Ohio where the nuts are bought and hulled.
Gary Kessler piled Morgan and two other sons and a nephew into his pickup earlier this month to sell the nuts that litter his Ostrander horse farm every year.
Cullman observed their harvest.
"Boy, you guys had some juicy ones in the bottom," he said over the roar of his hulling machine. He hovered nearby as they pitched the lime-colored balls into a bin splattered with black slime.
"Most people bring them from their yards," Cullman said. "I got into this mainly to give people an outlet for the nuts."
Growing and buying
Most of the year, Cullman tends to hundreds of trees on his 60 acres near the Delaware-Union county line, where he grows black and English walnuts, hazelnuts, Japanese heart nuts and pecans.
But starting Oct. 1, he devotes six weeks to buying black walnuts. Nationally, there are 250 dealers in 13 states, each equipped with machines that free the nuts from spongy husks and spit them into bags.
When the season ends in November, Cullman and other Ohio dealers sell their share to Missouri-based Hammons Products Co.
Commonly found in open fields or woodlots, black-walnut trees are native to the eastern, Midwest and Great Plains regions of the country, according to the Ohio Division of Forestry Web site.
Their fine-grained wood often is used for furniture, and the nutshells are used in some cosmetics and dental products.
The nuts have a bolder taste than the more-common English walnuts. An 8-ounce bag of Hammons' large black walnuts retails for $5.95.
This month, two festivals in southwestern Ohio celebrated the nut.
For 17 years, vendors selling homemade crafts, furniture and nutty baked goods have filled the streets in the Preble County village of Camden.
"People just love our festival," event chairwoman -- or "top squirrel" -- Karen Feix said. "I think this started a long time ago, basically because of all the walnut trees around here."
Activities at Cincinnati's Farbach-Werner Nature Preserve focused on the park's hulling machine but also include nut-themed games and food.
Many visitors are surprised to learn there's a market for black walnuts, naturalist Penny Borgman said. "Some people look at the black walnuts as a problem to get rid of in their yard, like dandelions."
Walnut shortage
Borgman said she's noticed a shortage this season.
Typically, every other year is a good year, said Larry Vorwark, huller supervisor at Hammons.
"We like to buy right at 30 million pounds a year, and that can vary," Vorwark said. "It's going to be a light year."
Cullman blamed a late-spring frost for damaging male flowers on many local walnut trees.
He pointed out empty branches on some that usually bear fruit.
Diane Graves, of Marysville, has noticed the shortage, too.
She and friend Martha Phillips, of Milford Center, travel Union County hunting for walnuts, hickory nuts and berries. They are careful not to reveal their "secret" grounds.
The women have scoured the area for 30 years and say this year's search hasn't been as fruitful as usual.
Still, their time together is worthwhile, Phillips said. "I don't know why we think we have to work to visit, but we do."
Dark stains streaked their hands and clothes by the time they finished unloading more than 300 pounds on a recent Sunday at Cullman's farm.
Barb Cullman worries the hulling is too much for her retired husband.
The Northern Nut Growers Association recently rewarded the 76-year-old for his work in nut-tree cultivation, naming him this year's "Big Nut."
He laughed about the title, but his wife proudly added, "That's for giving more than his share of work."