Third, where there are nuts in quantity too limited to justify gathering and preparing for market, they should still be gathered and as carefully prepared as though for the market and used on the home table. They will be found to be most excellent and pleasing food.
To obtain the highest prices for black walnuts or butternuts, certain fundamentals should be kept in mind.
1. They should be sold only in the shelled condition.
2. The kernels must be delivered early.
3. They should present an attractive appearance.
4. They should be in thoroughly sanitary condition.
The explanation as to why they should be sold in the shelled condition is simple. The weight of shell is too great to justify shipment in that condition. In the shell, walnuts and butternuts seldom bring more than $1.50 or $2.00 per bushel and the demand is exceedingly limited, especially after the earliest part of the season. Again, the shells are of no value except for fuel. Fuel of this kind by freight or express is exceedingly costly. Again, the nuts must be cracked somewhere and the kernels removed before they can be used, and farm labor is much cheaper than that of the city. Regardless of where the labor is from, the cost of cracking the nuts and picking out the kernels, or "shelling" as the operation is called in the trade, is charged back to the farmer. The shelling of these nuts is something in which the whole family on the farm can join.
Delivery should be early as it is then that prices are best. The use of shelled nuts is practically an all-year affair, yet, just as soon as the supply begins to bulk up in the hands of the wholesalers, prices promptly go lower.
The condition in which black walnut kernels reach the market is ordinarily very poor. Little attention appears to be paid to the matter of sanitation, and practically no thought is given to their appearance. As a rule, shipment is made in burlap bags of double thickness. Little thought is ever paid to separating the kernels according to shade of color and it is rare that the kernels are properly cured after being removed from the shells. Oil and moisture given off by the kernels are taken up by the burlap bags, and by the time delivery is made to the wholesaler, the kernels are in no sense attractive and are often unsanitary. Fortunately, the kernels are carefully gone over by employees of the wholesaler by whom all spoiled pieces are removed and, in the process of manufacture, the kernels are usually so heated as to dispel any danger from ill effects due to the unsanitary condition.
The successive steps essential to harvesting and preparing for market may be grouped as follows: