The Hickory Nut, Yum Yum

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When I moved to my current home in Kansas I discovered this odd tree.  I had several of them, towering things with broad leaves and ’shaggy’ bark, and they had these nuts in the fall with a four part husk on the outside.  I was intrigued.  I was born and raised in the rather desolate plains of Nebraska, where trees are precious things hardly ever seen as tall as these wonderful towers.  The greatest tree I had ever seen as a young adult was a cotton wood, a majestic tree in its own right.  I set out to put names to the unfamiliar flora around my home and found myself the proud caretaker of several varieties of hickory, most notably the distinctive shag-bark hickory. I had of course heard of hickory.  Hickory smoked is often used on packages of various meats, and the wood, I knew, was a hard wood and supposedly was good for axe handles and the like.  The nuts however-I didn’t even know the darn things had nuts!  So I went on an information expedition.  Armed with books from libraries, the Arbor Day foundation website, and the websites of many happy hickory horticulturists, I soon found myself obsessed with this tree.  I have five distinct varieties (there are many varieties, and sub varieties of the tree) and I learned that the elevated pecan was actually a variety of the lowly hickory.  Who knew?  And that they are all part of the walnut family of trees, of which I also have several.  My first year, I cracked a few and collected a few and ate a few, wondering what to do with the wonderful bounty that I found dropping in my back yard.  They were way easier to crack than the black walnuts and I think tastier. After three years they have become a part of my families diet, just as they were for the Native Americans that lived in this area before me. Nutritionally they are a source of vegetable protein and vegetable fat, fiber, magnesium, and thiamine.