Hello, not only is this my first post to Hometalk, but it is also my first time trying to harvest walnuts...I found and picked about 20 lbs. of walnuts that had fallen from a couple of trees I have on my property. I did my research and found everything that I needed to begin the process of hulling these beauties with very high hopes I might add. I got my information from the US Forestry website and wondered at the time why my trees were actually dropping these nuts in July when the info. says September. Well after busting into a couple of handfuls, I find the nuts to be premature and it got me to thinking that maybe they only fell from the tree because of all of the rain we have been having lately. Are there any experts out there that can confirm my belief or that can give me some good advice as to what to do with these now that they are gathered. I wonder if even though the nuts are premature, will I still be able to use the hulls to make homemade wood stain as the forestry website indicated? Because if that is so, I have a lot more pickins to get so that I can stain my interior walls of my cabin.

Please help, I need all suggestions I can get. and Thank you in advance.