Shagbark Hickory Tree

In his weekly, Great Outdoors, columnist Rick Marsi suggests that the
shagbark hickory which provides nuts to both wildlife and people is his candidate for favorite Fall tree.

I located this tree just north behind the parking lot of Casey Park Elementary School during my morning walk.

Shagbark hickories are deciduous and provide excellent fall foliage color. In autumn their leaves turn a golden color - richer than the yellows displayed by the maples. "Shagbark" hickory trees derive their picturesque name from the interesting peeling bark they bear. This unusual bark juts out from one or both ends, curling outward. Even when the leaves are long gone from the deciduous trees in winter, this feature provides landscape interest.The fragrant nut the trees bear is said to be the tastiest from any of the hickory nut trees.

Harvesting Hickory Nuts

When we speak of the fruit (nut) from shagbark hickory nut trees, we are really dealing with three parts:

1. The husk.
2. The hard outer shell under the husk.
3. The meat of the nut within the hard outer shell.

Refrigerate or freeze the nut meat after you have removed it from the shells.
Do not try cracking the husk prematurely, unless you are a glutton for hard work. Rather, wait for ripening in autumn. Ripening begins in September and October. The green, leathery husk eventually turns brown and becomes more brittle. In fact, sometimes, when the nuts fall to the ground, the husks split open into four segments, allowing access to the nut within (of course, even then, you have still got the hard outer nutshell to crack). For this reason, some harvesters just wait until late autumn for all the nuts to fall.