Post by Lil, age six

This is how you harvest hickory nuts. You have to a hickory nut tree. The bark is jaggedy and there are many lobed leaves on each branch.

This is how you know the nuts are ripe: it has to be brown and also green. When it's hickory nut season you let them fall down and pick them up off the ground.

You have to have a vice to crack them. It's hard to crack the shell open. Squirrels crack the shells open with their teeth.

After the squirrels drop the nuts, they can hit the roof of the garage or the ground. It gets the ground kind of messy so watch out for that.

The meat is ripe when it is light brown. It tastes kind of like pecans. I usually eat them raw.

I like doing hickory nuts because the inside is yummy.

Note from Rachel: Encouraging your child to collect, crack, and consume hickory nuts is a most glorious ~~waste of time~~ learning activity.

Have you ever eaten hickory nuts? Do you like Lil writing on Hounds in the Kitchen? She wants to know!