A tough nut to crack: Hickory workshop gets at meat of the problem | Country Life News | leadertelegram.com

STEVENS POINT — When October and the first hard frost hits the Midwest, wild nut foragers take to the woods to harvest what many consider the best tasting nut of all: hickory.

But once the pleasure of crunching through fallen leaves, watching curious birds dart from branch to branch, and rattling fistfuls of nuts into a plastic bucket are over, the idyllic scene often screeches to a halt for the harvesters. They know the next step is coaxing the hard-to-get nutmeats out of their exceptionally hard and convoluted shells.

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