Back in 2005, I visited Hammons Black Walnuts in Stockton, Missouri. Since black walnuts are such a cash crop for the Ozarks, I wanted to bring back this column that ran in several Missouri newspapers 18 years ago. It looks like the Hammons Black Walnuts business is cracking on! Stockton even holds an annual black walnut festival, and Missouri’s governor declared Sept. 29-30 as “Black Walnut Week.” Not sure how two days equals one week, but that’s government for you. ~ BB
Ozarkians love to forage in the woods for wild edibles – in the spring, morels, and in the fall, black walnuts. The word for hunting nuts is nutting. Wordsworth used it in reference to his poem about hunting for hickory nuts. (If you were mushrooming though, you would not be hunting for mushrooms.
Eastern black walnuts, also called American walnuts, have added to many a family’s income here in the Ozarks.
Our family goes nutting to please the patriarch of the family, who loves to eat the nuts.
Black walnut trees are not only popular for their fruits. According to an article in “Mother Earth News,” the black walnut “is one of the great unknown victims of the two world wars.” In order to produce enough of the tough wood for gunstocks throughout the war-torn years of our history, Americans felled groves of black walnut trees.
Another article in “M.E. News” stated that black walnut wood is “unsurpassed, since no other wood has less jar or recoil, it doesn’t warp, shrink or splinter, and it is light in proportion to its strength.”
In light of the demise of black walnut trees, Missourians should thank one family in the Stockton area for realizing the importance of keeping black walnut trees alive.
Thanks to the actions of a grocer named Ralph Hammons, in Stockton, this state could also be known as the black walnut capital of the world.
Recently, I met Hammons’ son, Dwain, who told me about how his dad started buying walnuts from folks in 1945 and sent them to Virginia to be processed.
The hulling plant in Virginia closed the next year, so Mr. Hammons decided to do his own hulling, onsite in Stockton. Soon the nuts from his plant gained the reputation of the Hammons brand.
Dwain’s son, Brian, is now the president of the company.
The Hammons’ nut business mushroomed, and today, Hammons Products Company processes more than 20 million pounds of nuts annually. Hammons buys nuts from about 250 locations in 12 states.
After arriving at the plant, the nuts are cleaned, dried and run through state-of-the-art nutcrackers complete with wheels, rollers and sharp teeth that crack and separate the nutmeats from the shells.
No part of the nut goes to waste. The shell is ground into fine particles and used as an abrasive for polishing and filtration. It is also used to make cosmetics and dental products.
After the tornado devastated Stockton in May 2003, and the Hammons’ plant, the family decided to rebuild not only the plant, but also an Emporium on the town square.
The Emporium offers several Missouri products, and nut-filled products – such as ice cream and chocolate. I highly recommend the chocolate-covered walnuts. If you order, buy the big bag. That potato chip jingle “nobody can eat just one” fits these food items as well.
For more information about Hammons black walnut processing, see its website.
