The Noble Walnut
Sep. 10th, 2007 01:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gracedpalmerWalnut collection continues, and there's been some interest in posts about the odd things I do on a daily basis. Therefore, it's time for
The Black or American Walnut tree is native to the U.S. It likes to grow along rivers, but seems totally happy on the street corner and in front of our house. This is not the kind of walnut that produces the nuts that are sold in the store in little plastic bags. Those are the much friendlier and easier to get Persian Walnut. Black walnuts are harder to get out of their husks, harder to get out of their shells, and produce a lot more tannin. They're also rumored to be stronger tasting, which may be either a good thing, or a bad thing. Walnut tasting must wait for a later date.
If you're going to harvest walnuts, you can just pick them up off the ground. If you hope to eat them, try to get the husks that are still almost entirely green. The tannins in the husk can get through the shell and make the nuts bitter if you wait till the husks turn brown. If you're just making dye or ink, you can pick up anything that's still in its husk.
Preparing walnuts for eating: Get a hammer, and carefully smash the husk off on a hard surface that you don't mind turning brown. Wear gloves, and don't hit the husks too hard. The really juicy ones will splatter. You might find larva in the husks, but they don't eat the nut meats, so they're mostly just gross rather than harmful. When you get all the husks off, put them in a bucket and give them to someone who wants to make dye. Then, scrub the remaining tannin and husk off the shells with a wire brush. If you fill the sink up with water while doing this, you can see which walnuts float, and which don't. Throw away the floaty nuts, and spread the clean ones that don't float in a warm, dry place. We're using our attic. Theoretically, after three weeks or so, the nuts will be dried out and can be cracked open and eaten. Note: it's rumored to be pretty much impossible to get a black walnut kernel out intact. You may need tools.
For making dye/ink: Get a bucket. Fill it with walnut hulls, whole walnuts of any color, etc. Now, get a big iron pot. I'm using a 5 quart dutch oven. You can also use a steel, aluminum, or glass pot, but your results will vary - iron makes the blackest color. Fill your pot up with walnuts, and then add water to cover them. Cook, covered, on medium to low heat for anywhere between eight and twenty-four hours, making sure your liquid doesn't entirely boil off. Then, take out the walnuts. You'll probably have to strain the liquid, since the hulls disintegrate pretty significantly. You should now (if you used iron) have a very dark brown, nearly black liquid.
If you're making ink, you'll now cook that liquid for a while longer, till it gets nice and thick. Then, add a tablespoon of vinegar (to prevent mold) and as much gum arabic as you need to make it flow from your pen or brush the way you like. This ought to keep pretty much forever. It's said that you can just take the mold off the top if your ink should develop life. I'm currently at the cooking down stage. When I'm done, it looks like I'll have about three cups of ink, from processing two 5 quart batches of walnuts. I'll report on its effectiveness, with photos, later.
I'd like to dye some stuff, too. As far as I can tell, the liquid from the boiling walnuts ought to make an acceptable dye concentrate. If you have a lot of time, and no good cooking apparatus, you can also apparently just dump the walnuts into a big plastic garbage can with water, wait six months, and use the resultant liquid.
If you're planning to dye fabric or fibers with walnuts, different mordants produce different colors. However, they're all pretty much brown. An aluminum pot, or fiber boiled in alum, will give you a caramel to mahogany brown. A copper pot or copper mordant gets you dark brown, but so does no mordant at all. Depending on what's in your water and the fiber you use, some people online report getting light brown with no mordant. Tin makes a medium brown, and iron makes a near black, or greyish brown. Walnuts have good lightfastness, unlike a lot of other natural dyes, like poke. The instructions for dyeing fiber seem mostly to be "boil walnuts. Add fiber to walnut water. Boil, or just let it sit for a long time. Voila, brown fiber!" This will be attempted later, once I have enough walnuts.
In theory, this stuff also ought to work on skin and hair. So far, it's pretty good at giving me brown fingers. I'm reluctant to try it on my hair - not because I think it will be harmful, but because I want to dye it other colors, and walnut has staying power.
The Black or American Walnut tree is native to the U.S. It likes to grow along rivers, but seems totally happy on the street corner and in front of our house. This is not the kind of walnut that produces the nuts that are sold in the store in little plastic bags. Those are the much friendlier and easier to get Persian Walnut. Black walnuts are harder to get out of their husks, harder to get out of their shells, and produce a lot more tannin. They're also rumored to be stronger tasting, which may be either a good thing, or a bad thing. Walnut tasting must wait for a later date.
If you're going to harvest walnuts, you can just pick them up off the ground. If you hope to eat them, try to get the husks that are still almost entirely green. The tannins in the husk can get through the shell and make the nuts bitter if you wait till the husks turn brown. If you're just making dye or ink, you can pick up anything that's still in its husk.
Preparing walnuts for eating: Get a hammer, and carefully smash the husk off on a hard surface that you don't mind turning brown. Wear gloves, and don't hit the husks too hard. The really juicy ones will splatter. You might find larva in the husks, but they don't eat the nut meats, so they're mostly just gross rather than harmful. When you get all the husks off, put them in a bucket and give them to someone who wants to make dye. Then, scrub the remaining tannin and husk off the shells with a wire brush. If you fill the sink up with water while doing this, you can see which walnuts float, and which don't. Throw away the floaty nuts, and spread the clean ones that don't float in a warm, dry place. We're using our attic. Theoretically, after three weeks or so, the nuts will be dried out and can be cracked open and eaten. Note: it's rumored to be pretty much impossible to get a black walnut kernel out intact. You may need tools.
For making dye/ink: Get a bucket. Fill it with walnut hulls, whole walnuts of any color, etc. Now, get a big iron pot. I'm using a 5 quart dutch oven. You can also use a steel, aluminum, or glass pot, but your results will vary - iron makes the blackest color. Fill your pot up with walnuts, and then add water to cover them. Cook, covered, on medium to low heat for anywhere between eight and twenty-four hours, making sure your liquid doesn't entirely boil off. Then, take out the walnuts. You'll probably have to strain the liquid, since the hulls disintegrate pretty significantly. You should now (if you used iron) have a very dark brown, nearly black liquid.
If you're making ink, you'll now cook that liquid for a while longer, till it gets nice and thick. Then, add a tablespoon of vinegar (to prevent mold) and as much gum arabic as you need to make it flow from your pen or brush the way you like. This ought to keep pretty much forever. It's said that you can just take the mold off the top if your ink should develop life. I'm currently at the cooking down stage. When I'm done, it looks like I'll have about three cups of ink, from processing two 5 quart batches of walnuts. I'll report on its effectiveness, with photos, later.
I'd like to dye some stuff, too. As far as I can tell, the liquid from the boiling walnuts ought to make an acceptable dye concentrate. If you have a lot of time, and no good cooking apparatus, you can also apparently just dump the walnuts into a big plastic garbage can with water, wait six months, and use the resultant liquid.
If you're planning to dye fabric or fibers with walnuts, different mordants produce different colors. However, they're all pretty much brown. An aluminum pot, or fiber boiled in alum, will give you a caramel to mahogany brown. A copper pot or copper mordant gets you dark brown, but so does no mordant at all. Depending on what's in your water and the fiber you use, some people online report getting light brown with no mordant. Tin makes a medium brown, and iron makes a near black, or greyish brown. Walnuts have good lightfastness, unlike a lot of other natural dyes, like poke. The instructions for dyeing fiber seem mostly to be "boil walnuts. Add fiber to walnut water. Boil, or just let it sit for a long time. Voila, brown fiber!" This will be attempted later, once I have enough walnuts.
In theory, this stuff also ought to work on skin and hair. So far, it's pretty good at giving me brown fingers. I'm reluctant to try it on my hair - not because I think it will be harmful, but because I want to dye it other colors, and walnut has staying power.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-09-10 06:21 pm (UTC)...unless my life changes a lot, which I suppose I should not rule out.
I may have nightmares about walnutting my hair tonight, though. Easy-to-use permanent dyes give me the creeps.
no subject
Date: 2007-09-10 08:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-10 10:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-11 12:18 am (UTC)