Hickories(including pecan) are members of the walnut family, Juglandaceae, and as such, do produce some juglone, but as far as I'm aware, none produce sufficient amounts to be considered a potential threat to the ornamentals & vegetables that we worry about with regard to juglone toxicity from eastern black walnut.
Somewhere, sometime, I saw an article indicating that, of the hickories, shagbark - C.ovata, had the highest juglone production within its root zone. I'd have no real concerns with regard to using pecan or hickory leaves in my compost pile, or as mulch around trees/shrubs.
Scotjute - I've used clean mockernut nuts & husks to make 'hickory syrup', by boiling them. If folks can make it from strips of shagbark hickory bark, there's no reason some nice clean husks won't be just as good - and less lichen, poison ivy rootlets and assorted bug frass to deal with.

lucky p -- do you have a recipe of sorts, like how much of what you use to make the syrup? Husks, too? How much water to sugar? How many pounds of nuts/husks? How long do you boil it?

Thanks.

OK, here's what I do - I'll take a gallon or so of shagbark nutshell pieces, left over after I've cracked & picked out the nutmeats - or you could use a similar amount of mockernut nuts & husks - place 'em in a big, deep pot, add enough water to just cover them and bring to a boil.
Boil for 4-8 hrs, replenishing water as needed and occasionally stirring.
Strain through a clean washcloth or jelly strainer. You should now have a nice, brown 'liquor'. Add sugar - and this takes some playing around with amounts - I usually shoot for 2 cups sugar per cup of liquid, but sometimes after you get past 1 cup, it crystallizes out after it cools. Cook until the syrup reaches your desired consistency, stirring frequently. Pour into clean canning jars (I usually add 1 tsp salt per pint jar to help keep mold growth at bay) and seal. Refrigerate after opening - or use it in a short time frame, as it will 'go off'(ferment)

Am I the only person who thinks the idea of boiled nutshell fragments sounds unappetizing? No offense im certain it tastes great, but it just doesnÂt sound very good, lol

Thanks for the details, lucky p. I'll sure try it. Sounds like a fun project.

LOL fledgeling, how about hog's head tamales? Does that sound good? (They are terrific, believe it or not!)

fledge,
It really is good - and personally, I was less 'put off' by boiling nice clean nutshell pieces, and even mockernut nut husks than I was by the thought of the more historically-correct hickory bark syrup - made by boiling strips of exfoliating bark pulled off of shagbark hickory trees, with all the lichens, poison ivy/Virginia creeper vines/rootlets, bugs & bug frass.

If you want some slightly more "interesting" food, try the highly rated (and very expensive) Chinese delicacy Ch'ung-tsao.

. . . mummified swift-moth caterpillars parasitised by the fungus Cordyceps sinensis, dug out of the ground.

Supposed to be really good!!

You can see them here:

Here is a link that might be useful: Chung-tsao

At $524 per kg. I think I'll opt for truffles or beluga caviar.

Cacau

I suppose you could eat the sludge out of a crankcase too if you added two cups of sugsr per cup of liquid but probably like boiled nut husk it would have no nutritional value and probably be carcinogenic.

"At $524 per kg"

You'd be lucky! 2007 prices per kg US$3000 (lowest quality) to over US$15,000 (best quality = big larvae).

Resin

Here is a link that might be useful: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegetable_caterpillar

Resin, one of the websites you referenced is selling packets of the "Chinese herbs" for that dish at $68.13/g so I just multiplied it up; I suppose the packets probably aren't pure caterpillar mummies.

Since we're getting off the subject of Carya IDs, maybe we should start another thread such as "Unusual Tree Comestibles." Example: Kentucky Coffee Tree seeds--has anyone ever tried brewing them up? Lucky must have, since he lives in Kentucky and already is known to boil hickory nut husks.

Several questions come to mind: is it dangerous to eat too many persimmons at one sitting (intestinal obstructions)? is it dangerous to eat too many ginkgo nuts at a sitting? is the fuzz inside honeylocust pods really edible?

Cacau

"Kentucky Coffee Tree seeds--has anyone ever tried brewing them up?"
I've read somewhere that there are toxicity problems with this

"is it dangerous to eat too many persimmons at one sitting"
Should be OK, as long as they're properly ripe, not still astringent.

"is it dangerous to eat too many ginkgo nuts at a sitting?"
Have heard it is, yes.

"is the fuzz inside honeylocust pods really edible?"
As far as I know, yes.

Resin

Kentucky Coffee Tree seeds are indeed toxic most of the year. There's only a 2 week, or so, period where they aren't toxic and can be brewed. I've heard from others, who have made the brew that it isn't that good, even at it's best. It kind of makes you wonder how in the world did someone figure that out? Well, Teddy brewed some up 3 weeks ago and died, Jimmy did it 2 weeks ago and died, then John did it last week and died, I guess I'll brew some up this week! (I'm not sure how toxic they are, i.e. is it fatal, or will it just make you really sick)

I've read reports of people with intestinal blockage caused by eating the indigestible skin, but I think it must be extremely rare.

I'm not sure what the "fuzz" is on the inside of a Honeylocust Pod, but I've eaten the sweet flesh on the inside of a Honeylocust Pod and yes they are really edible. Although most have an odd after-taste(or even a little bitter), but some have no real after-taste and are kind of good IMO.

Hhmmm....so how to tie this back in to Hickories ha ha ...well most of them have tasty edible meat! I'm interested in the Hickory syrup too, it sounds like it's good.

Nope. Never brewed up any KCT seeds - though my understanding is that roasting will denature the cytisine in them, rendering them non-toxic - but all reports suggest that the 'beverage' made by brewing ground roasted KCT seeds was vastly inferior to actual coffee. I've tasted the green 'goo' inside the pods, which surrounds the seeds, and found it not especially distasteful, but I'm not inclined to eat soap - and one of the things I always did when lecturing school kids about KCTs was to demonstrate how the early settlers(and perhaps the indigenous people) used that 'goo' as a form of hand soap.

There are reports in the human literature of persimmon bezoars, but I've never read them to see exactly what their nature was. I did do a postmortem exam(I'm a veterinary pathologist) on a horse within the last year or so, which had a persimmon bezoar - a firm mass composed mostly of partially masticated persimmon seeds & seed sacks, 9cmX5cmX5cm, which had obstructed the animal's small intestine. I have it prominently displayed on a shelf here in my office, along with other bezoars, hairballs, and enteroliths I've collected through the years.

I too, have sampled the honey-like material in the pods of honeylocust, but as kman indicates, it's not something you'd want to utilize as a dietary staple. Cattle and deer love them, and there have been folks, like Russell Smith, who advocated planting them as a source of livestock feed.

We have wild orange trees growing in our woods...with great long spiky thorns and lovely white blossoms in the spring. When we first moved up here, I decided to make some lemonade with the wild oranges. It tasted pretty good, but it made me sick. So, my advice is to forget the wild oranges.

Ah, yes. Trifoliate orange, Poncirus trifoliata.
While affectionados of English orange marmalade occasionally *claim* that you can make a tasty treat from those fruits, no one that I know has ever been able to get past the really nasty oil in the rind, which permeates everything.
I once saw a tongue-in-cheek recipe for trifoliate lemonade - used the juice of one fruit, 55 gallons of water and 50 lbs of sugar.

The closest I came to eating honeylocust pod innards was in north coastal Peru where people eat the "fuzz" inside the pods of the tree Inga feuillei, family Fabaceae like the others. There they call it pacay; it's nothing special, pretty bland. There is a similar tree in those regions, Inga edulis, that produces pods they call "ice cream beans," but I've never tried them.

BTW Resin, those higher prices you quote for Chung-tsao are for the UNWRAPPED caterpillar mummies; very labor-intensive.

Cacau

Does anyone have experience with Hicans? I just ordered one from an East Texas nursery. I read that this is a natural cross of Pecans and Hickories. The nut is said to taste Hickory but shell like a Pecan.
One unusual happening is Tremites in one of my Pecans, just yesterday I had it treated to kill them out. Native Termites are said not to damage trees but Formosan Termites kill the tree.
Joe T.

I've read that hicans are as bitter as bitternut. Wish I had better news for you on that.

Do hicans give you hicups?

;-)

Joe T.
I've got several grafted hicans in my collection - some ShagbarkXPecan(Burton, Palmer) and some ShellbarkXPecan(Bixby, Vernon, McAllister, Jim Wilson, James, Caha) - and one seedling of the Abbott bitcan(bitternutXpecan).
Also have one new pecan variety that is a seedling of the Major pecan, suspected to have been pollenated by the Burton hican - so it'd be 3/4 pecan 1/4 shagbark hickory - nuts look like pecan(larger and more elongate than the Major parent), but some bud/bark features are strongly suggestive of hickory introgression.

None of my hicans have borne nuts yet - oldest one has been in the ground here for about 10 years; they all have the reputation of being 'shy bearers' The trees are very vigorous, growing much more rapidly than pecans or hickories.
I've seen hican nuts on occasion at nutgrowers meetings, but I've usually pocketed a few and tried to germinate & grow them, rather than cracking & eating them.

I planted a few of the hicans that Stark Bros. sold along with their james pecans. That was propably at least 16 years ago. still small trees. The largest pecan has blossomed but never produced. What I suspect is the problem is that they cut the tap root off and the trees flounder on side roots. they are planted in a nice bottom ground.

That pecan needs another pecan nearby to pollinate it.

q.mac is right. You need at least one other pecan - preferrably two or more, with compatible pollen-shed/nutlet flower receptivity patterns to get nut set and maturation.

Cutting the taproot is no big deal - there's nothing magical about a taproot - it's just an energy reserve storage vessel, so the more taproot you can preserve when digging a pecan(oak/walnut/persimmon,etc.), the better, but if you cut it off a foot below ground level, it's not a death sentence. With appropriate planting, mulching, and adequate supplemental watering the first year or two, any taprooted seedling(or seedling with grafted top) will do just fine, and long-term performance would not be significantly different from a seedling of the same age which had never had its taproot severed.

I bought 2 Shagbarks and 2 S. Pecans from Oikos. Due to the trees being a little smaller they gave me an extra pecan, 2 extra Shagbarks and 1 Lecont Hican. Sure will take time to establish...but I am looking forward to it :)

jqp,
That Lecont hican will be a crapshoot, with regard to edibility, as it's a hybrid of pecan & bitter pecan/water hickory(C.aquatica).

I have a few wild seedling pecan trees that produced a few nuts this year even though their trunks are only 5-6 inches diameter. With ample moisture and sunlight, they can actually grow fairly quickly. Watch out for June beetles in the summer, they can strip a seedling overnight.

Lucky_p, thanks for the advice. I don't really mind b/c the tree is free, but I don't want it to go to waste. So, I planted it off to the corner in a more natural area away from the pecans. We'll see?

Excellent. Never waste a tree, unless it's a foreign invasive. Or a catalpa.

You might luck up, and the nuts may be exquisite - but the opposite is also a possibility. I've eaten a couple of 'Abbott' bitcan(bitternutXpecan) nuts, and they were OK, but some seedlings with C.cordiformis or C.aquatica in the mix may have bitter, astringent nutmeats, like those parents, rather than the sweet, tasty kernel of the pecan parent.
At any rate, it should make a handsome, fast-growing tree.

The nuts from my hickory trees match the pictures on ebay as hickory nuts, the light brown not totally round nuts from the pictures from tree #1 in this thread. I would like to know how much yield of nut meats might come from a pound of nuts in their shells. A friend told me to boil the shells, with bad ones floating to the top to toss. Lay them out to dry for at least a couple of weeks or longer to pick over the winter. She thinks about 1/4 cup per pound. Does this sound about right?

Its about that time of year to be in hickory love again. So far 1 of my seedling hickories died. The Lecont Hican grew well and then at some point this summer...something or someone stepped on it. It snapped at the base. I think it'll be fine and grow back from the ground. (Crosses Fingers). I've been walking around trying to find good nuts. I really like Shagbarks, but they are rare around these parts. I'll have to made due with "Carolina Shagbarks". We have a few around the neighborhood. How should I store these. Should I peel off the green hulls? Should I leave them in a dry spot inside til they brown up and then pull out the nut and plant? Thanks for any help!

Yes indeed, 'float' test those nuts - but not in boiling water. Just put the husked nuts in a bucket of water - good, well-filled nuts will sink; poorly-filled 'blanks' will float.

You'll need to remove the husks - if the nuts are mature, it should be relatively easy to pry/pop them off, but if they were blown or cut from the tree before they were really ripe - like those that blew off here, two weeks ago, when the remnants of Hurricane Ike blew through with 65mph winds - they'll be tougher to get off. Ordinarily, you could just spread them out in a cool, dry spot to dry for a few days, and they'l become easier to remove, but it doesn't look like that's gonna be the case for those blown out early.

A REALLY GOOD shagbark or shellbark hickory will have ~ 45% kernel, but most run-of-the-mill trees' nuts will yield less.

Hmmm...thanks for the suggestion. So found I found 4 de-husked nuts from what looks to be a carolina shagbark. 3 floated and 1 sunk. I still planted them all (maybe i'll get lucky). Have more waiting for me on the desk. They are drying, but not really splitting apart. We'll see?!

I have some kind of hickory tree but we just havent been able to figure it out. I have pictures and will try and load them.

I have some kind of hickory tree but we just havent been able to figure it out. I have pictures and will try and load them.

I have been reading with interest. I have a shag bark hickory. You can tell one because the bark has large pieces you can pull of. We used to do that as kids and wing em at each other. There used to be lots of these trees around me, but mine had the best tasting nuts. Super delicious, both green and when ripe. No bitter after taste like a walnut, just the great walnut taste. These should be as valuable as truffles if the rich people caught on. Anyway, I have to redo my roof, so the tree has to go as the nuts are coming from so far up now it damages the shingles. I should have thought to save some nuts to plant. This tree is very healthy, and it should survive with progeny. I live in NE. It occurred to me after reading this thread, that the hickory must need people to plant it, otherwise there surely would have been more around here, since the squirrels plant it. It must need a clearing and care as a seedling. I would bet the native Americans and then the colonists planted these on the edge of their fields both for nuts and syrup. It is a pity it has to go. Really is the last of its kind. the nuts are heart shaped. Wonderful tree, but I am old and cant climb it any higher to trim it. BTW if you have one, prune it. It will bud up and produce even more nuts.

I'm pretty sure they do grow wild without people to plant them. I think they grow too slowly to compete with white pine in newly abandoned vacant lots. If the nuts are heart shaped, are you sure it isn't a heartnut?

I live on 40 acres in NE Kansas, of which all but about 8 acres is wooded. We have many shagbarks growing throughout the property and you don't have to sow the nuts, they pop up all over the place every year; I'd imagine from the squirrels. They are tasty but so many that end up with a weevil in them. I don't get on here to often but if anyone wants a few nuts I still have some in the garage from the 2015 crop.

Well our squirrels must be very adept. What is a heartnut? Pretty sure it is shagbark.

BT,

Heartnut is a mutated form of the Japanese walnut, J.ailantifolia (var. cordiformis).

'Locket' -shaped nuts, with valentine heart-shaped kernels.

Photos of them here: Heartnuts

trisin01: Yes, I'd love hickory nuts.

lucky_p: Yup. Heartnut is a walnut relative known for heart shaped nuts and for being tasty and easy to crack. When OP said the nuts were heart shaped ad especially tasty, they came to mind.

Hi. Thank you. I looked at the pictures. Although the nuts look somewhat the same, the color is creamy white, and I would not describe these nuts as easy to crack. I think it was planted from a selection, from what I have read. These are good quality nuts and not terrible to remove from the shell. I really hate to lose this tree. It has fruit every year and not every other as the article states wild ones do.

I'd actually love to get some nuts from it.

edlincoln: Let me know how I can get your address and I'll get them in the mail. I may have a few black walnuts laying around that I can throw in, as well.

Thanks trisin01!!! Enable messaging and I'll send it.

Should be ready for you, edlincoln.

Nearby lake at Rocky Gap State Park (MD) has an astonishing number of shagbark saplings along its shores -- thousands. Never seen anything like it.

I love hickory nuts and have been trying to find some. I have a candy recipe that calls for them but haven't been able to get them so I've been substituting walnuts and pecans.