EATON, Ohio – While farmers in and around Preble County are harvesting corn and soybeans, one local farm is bringing in a unique kind of harvest. Two miles northeast of Eaton you will find the Price family buying black walnuts this time of year.

The Price family (B.J., wife Cathy, and sons Jimmy, Sammy and Johnny) began buying nuts nine years ago and has been at it ever since. They work for the Hammons Products Co., of Stockton, Mo.

“It was 2012 and I remember contacting the Hammons about purchasing walnuts for them,” said B.J., who is also the Preble County district administrator and technician at the county Soil and Water Conservation District. “In 1988, my father bought walnuts for a company, but a year later that company went out of business. We didn’t do anything more involving walnuts until 2012.”

The black walnut is not exactly a favorite of many. They’re actually a hassle to homeowners who have to pick them up to avoid running them over with a lawnmower or tripping on them. The nuts are usually discarded in the trash or dumped in the woods. But surprisingly, there is a market for them. Some homeowners make the effort to pick them up and deliver them to the Price family.

The nuts can be transported to the Prices in buckets, bags, 55-gallon drums or any container than can be easily dumped out. The nuts are run through a huller that knocks the green shucks off the shell. Customers are paid by the weight of the in-shell nuts after hulling. Nuts get bagged up in approximately 40-50 pounds bags, which are then stacked on pallets and left to air-dry, awaiting shipment to Missouri later in the season.

The harvest season generally runs the entire month of October. The Price family will purchase any quantity ranging from a few buckets to a trailer full. They will take nuts each Saturday afternoon or weekdays by appointment only.

As it turns out, the 2021 harvest season for walnuts is doing quite well.

“There is no typical year,” B.J. said. “We might not buy enough to fill a semi-trailer or we might buy three semi-trailer loads. It all depends, though we’re learning that even-numbered years are typically poorer years in terms of total pounds, while odd-numbered years are really good.”

According to Price, in 2017 he and his family purchased 147,000 pounds of nuts for Hammons. The following year the family took in just 30,000 pounds of walnuts.

Roughly six miles away in West Alexandria, Ohio, Bob Lewis has five walnut trees on the border of his farm. He harvests them himself, using the meat of the black walnut in cakes, brownies and salads.

“B.J. is right, this has been a good year,” said Lewis, who was busy rinsing some hulled nuts. “It’s best to hull the nuts when they’re green and right off the tree. I simply use a knife and cut around the nut once then twist the green shell off. I rinse the nuts, and anything that floats is discarded because there’s no meat inside. I dry mine in chicken wire on my garage floor. The wire keeps the squirrels from getting to them. I let them dry about three weeks before taking a hammer to them. It’s a lot of work, but well worth it in the end.”

Both men agree, the drying process is very important to keep them from becoming moldy. “As long as you can get good airflow, you’ll be OK,” Price said. “The more airflow the better. Some people put them in the garage, some put them on a roof of their house.

“Some folks come out just to see how the operation works. In reality, a pickup truck load of walnuts may be worth up to $125 if it is loaded full.”

For more information about selling walnuts to the Price family, contact them at 937-456-4803.