Cracking black walnuts is a difficult task since thier shells are so hard. ("Black Walnuts - one in its husk adn one already cracked (with a hammer)" by Vladimir Menkov, 2007). 

 

 

 

Early farmers in the eastern U.S. often planted rows of black walnut trees within their fruit orchards to accompany their primary fruit harvests. However, now cultivating and harvesting of Black Walnuts is predominantly a Midwestern industry, producing an annual harvest of over 50 million pounds of nuts. Most black walnut production is from wild, non-bred trees. A study from University of Missouri highlights how nut-cracking plants rely on wild species of black walnut, which are subject to instability since the black walnut is an alternate bearing species. This means that the trees bear fruit in two-year cycles. There has been an overall decrease in black walnut nutmeat production as Hammons Products Company in Stockton, Missouri is currently the only large-scale processor and distributor of wild black walnut in the U.S. compared with ten black walnut cracking plants in 1955.

 A family-owned business, Hammons Products Company is the largest processor in the world. In Missouri, black walnuts are still hand picked in the fall and then packaged and sold within a system of buying stations. More than 66 percent of the black walnut crop derives from Missouri. The study found that the most significant limitation of black walnut as a crop in the Midwest is directly associated with its tendency to bear alternately in addition to problems with pests. University of Missouri established a breeding program in 2000 to develop improved nut cultivars and to design new black walnut orchards to improve commercial production in the long run. Outside of the Midwest, backyard nut collectors are the most common source of black walnuts.