Hickory Nuts in the food forest: A Regenerative Farm Bumper Crop Opportunity

This is the first year I fully get to dive into discovering what exactly lays hidden on our farmstead. There are wooded fence lines and ravines scattered about – that have been totally unexplored by us, until today.

We’ve been zeroed-in on the farm operations - built fences, repaired fences, cleared fences, and developed water lines for the South Poll Cattle herd and Hair Sheep flock this year. This has left little time to explore. Now that fall is here and that all of the fencing and water lines are nearly finished, it’s time to find what our farmstead has to offer.

After reading the book Farming in the Woods by Ken Mudge and Steve Gabriel, I truly couldn’t wait to see what our own “food forest” was already providing. So, a walk through these unexplored areas yielded a great result – tons of Shagbark Hickory and Black Walnut trees everywhere.

This first year, we’ve have spent hours foraging for the hickory nuts scattered around. It’s been a fun fall treat to do with the family. We’ve hulled and sorted all the Shagbark Hickory nuts; they are stored and ready for our customers to purchase.

Of course, I’ve kept a lot back for our family – this is the best tasting nut I’ve ever eaten. It’s a maple-rum like flavor that has outdone the taste of pure maple syrup.