A co-worker of our has a black walnut tree, that drops a prolific number of nuts each fall. This year B decided that he wanted to take them off of their hands to use as pig fodder. Black walnuts are pretty protected and you have to work quite hard to get to them. When they fall they are covered in an almost tennis ball size husk.
B dumped said husk covered nuts on the drive and proceeded to run over them with the tractor. Then you have to pull the nuts out of the husks by hand. The inner husk has a green colored dye like substance so you have to wear gloves for this part or you will be carrying remnants of your adventure around with you all week.
What we are left with are loads of black walnuts drying out. Pigs are supposed to be quite partial to all kinds of nuts. We have been a bit disappointed in how picky Mabel and Penelope are when it comes to kitchen scraps, so I remained skeptical.
Yesterday, B began to crack some nuts for them and they absolutely love them! We haven't been able to get them to crack them on their own yet.
As with raising many an animal, it is a labor of love, and the gleeful pig sounds as thanks were worth it!
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