Processing Shagbark Hickory nuts (Carya ovata) - Hulling, Storing, Stratifying, and Planting Advice
In this video, I talk about how we process hickory nuts for future planting and eating. I talk about the process from harvesting the nuts in fall to planting the nuts in spring. I also show a typical nursery bed of first year hickory seedlings.
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Sarah Polk’s Hickory Nut Cake
Today in the kitchen I made former First Lady Sarah Polk’s Hickory Nut Cake. It was something that President and Mrs Polk enjoyed at their home in Tennessee as well as when they resided in The White House.
You can find the recipe on my website at
Make sure to check out the other historical recipes too! ????????❤️
Sam's Persimmon Hickory Nut Bread & Berry Jam with Linwood Watson
Linwood Watson, MD, is a member of the Haliwa-Saponi tribe. He and his immediate family have run a home orchard, The AspenSkye Orchard, since 2013, with various native fruits including mulberries, blackberries, blueberries and persimmons. He has worked with many eastern North Carolina tribes via the NC Native Ethnobotany project, ncnativeethnobotany.org, and has been blessed with plant connections from his tribe and other tribes, such as the Coharie and the Waccamaw-Siouan. He works with many of these tribes currently on the growth and maintenance of various aspects of their community gardens, especially American persimmons. He is a board certified family medicine physician, and has been a Southern Style powwow singer since the mid 1990s. He has a wife and 2 daughters, the oldest of whom dances girls fancy shawl and the youngest dances girls jingle. He enjoys exploring how plant culture and powwow culture can intersect, combine, and strengthen each other.
Author Note: Full credit for the Persimmon Hickory Hut Bread recipe should go to the source of this delectable recipe, namely Samuel Thayer. Sam is one of North America’s preeminent foragers, and he is great because he practices what he preaches. His recipe, steadily refined over the years, has been useful to me in delighting many Native Americans to the pleasures of the American persimmon. The exact source is the book, Incredible Wild Edibles- 36 Plants that can Change your Life, 2017, pg 262.
This video was developed as part of a project through the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Indigenous Food Sovereignty Initiative through which NĀTIFS works with partner Indigenous chefs across the country to develop recipes and accompanying cooking videos that demonstrate how to combine Indigenous & locally forageable foods with items available to tribal communities through the Food Distribution on Indian Reservations (FDPIR) federal emergency food program. This video was developed for the Southeastern region and highlights the forageable plants American Persimmon and maple syrup.
The written recipe to accompany this video can be found at:
Chapters
00:12 Lindwood Intro
00:49 Making Persimmon Pulp
3:06 Ingredients List
5:51 Mixing Dry Ingredients
6:52 Mixing Wet Ingredients
9:16 Combing Wet and Dry Ingredients
10:35 Bake Mixture
11:59 Storage and Perservation
12:14 Making Berry Jam
13:47 Checking for Consistency