Black Walnuts are often the bane of homemakers trying to keep a nice yard.   During a wet year these majestic trees will drop bucket after bucket full of black husked walnuts, which are often hard to rake up and hard on mowers.  While squirrels are attracted to them, they then dig up your yard in an effort to bury their little “treasures”.  Fun to watch, but cringe worthy for those of us who keep a neat yard.  It seems that in these modern times we, as a societal “we”, have forgotten how useful and important these trees once were. 

As a food source they can still be a healthy addition to a diet.  High in vegetable fat and vitamins, as well as just plain yummy, these nuts can make great gifts and wonderful additions to quick breads.

They were also once an important ingredient in ink.  Hard to imagine in our digital world that something like that was used for important record keeping as well as for artist sketches.  What used to be known as the “students” ink, less black and permanent than oak gall ink, and much cheaper than lamp black and other kinds of inks, walnut ink was widely used in the middle ages almost up to the industrial age.  And so easy to make. 

Here’s a project for you and the kids to do that harkens back to days of old, and has a wonderful product full of anticipation, alchemy like smells, and you can still eat the nut.

Materials you will need:  Glass containers for the ink to ferment in (an old pint jar or mayonnaise or pickle jar is fine, as long as it’s clean), cheese cloth and a rubber band for straining, walnut husks (duh!), and an opaque vessel to hold the finished ink, which can be another jar with paper or fabric glued on it, and clove oil (optional).

Step one:  Collect the walnuts, more specifically the crumbly husks on the outside of the hard shell.  These will start out green while still on the tree, but will slowly turn a very dark brown.  You can also let the squirrels do your work for you, as they will husk the nut before burying it, but then YOU don’t get to eat it, and that seems a waste.  You may collect them in any state, green or brown, and put them in a paper sack or bucket till they are brown and crumbly.  Be aware that this lovely stuff was also used as a fabric dye that is still used today in organic dyes, so on wet days wear old clothes!

Step two: Remove the nut from the husk and save the husk.  You can put the nut back for the squirrels (someplace that is acceptable to whomever owns that yard) or save it to crack-though you will probably need a hammer.  Those things are hard!  The husk will also often have little weevil larvae inside, and this will not in any way affect the ink.  Just pick them out, and hope the squeamish ones can handle it!

Step three:  Place the husks in a sauce pan with an equal amount of water and set to boil, squishing it together as you add them together. Use a pan that you aren’t too attached to as it will often become stained, or retain a bit of an odor.  And yes, this part is a bit stinky, but not too bad.  It might be fun to do this part outside on a grill, and make it a bit of a picnic.  Fun to cook outside and it won’t make the house too smelly.  I myself do not object to the odor of walnuts, but some people do.  I always make it on the stove.  Boil down the liquid by half, stirring occasionally so that burning does not occur-won’t make a huge difference in your ink, but will be harder to clean up the pan. 

Step Four:  After boiling, and a little bit of cooling (don’t burn yourself or any little ones you have helping!), strain the liquid using the cheese cloth stretched over one of the jars and tightened with the rubber band.  Make a little “well” in the middle of the cheese cloth and continually scrape off the bits of walnut that fall in.  You can actually boil the husks again to make another batch, if you want to save them.  When all of the liquid is strained into the glass container let it cool then put on the lid, cover with a cloth to keep the light out and store in a cool dark place for a month.

Step Five:  Waiting.  Ah, the hardest step, no matter what your age.  After about a month, unseal the jar (it will probably have sealed itself), scrape off the stinky mold, and seal again.  Repeat this step till it mostly stops molding which can vary depending on what time of year it is and where you live.  When it mostly stops molding, strain liquid one more time with cheese cloth to get every little bit of matter you can out of it.  I will sometimes use an old panty hose at this stage.  Store the ink in a tight container that is opaque, as sunlight will break down the vegetable matter. Ceramic jars or the glass jars with some sort of cloth or paper covering work well. At this stage you can odd a drop or two of clove oil which will help to preserve the ink and makes it smell a little more palatable to some people.

You can use this ink as a wash for sketching, a fine brown ink for calligraphy or just to draw with.  Happy husking!

Other articles by me:

• Green Activities for Kids to Do Outside
• Oh-God-Conversations-with-Children-About-Religion-in-a-Public-School-Setting
• Getting-Kids-in-Touch-Texture-Activities-for-the-Young
• The-Hickory-Nut-Yum-Yum