For generations in rural regions like Appalachia, the decision to "buy" black walnuts often starts with local families gathering them by the bushel. The process is famously difficult:

While the nutmeat is a robust, earthy superfood, the hulls are purchased for entirely different, more medicinal reasons: A Plant Story: Black Walnut

: Before the hard nut is revealed, it is encased in a thick green husk. Opening it is such a chore that traditional methods include rolling them underfoot or even driving cars over them on gravel driveways.

: Anyone who has handled them knows the "walnut stain." The hulls contain a powerful pigment that turns hands, clothes, and sidewalks a stubborn black that soap and water cannot touch.