It was said that witches held their meetings under the walnut tree and that you could tell if a woman was a witch by dropping an uncracked walnut into her lap; if she was truly a witch, she would not be able to rise.

It was said that the black walnut was the most sinister tree of all because it killed any vegetation that dared invade its space.

And, it was said, a heavy crop of black walnuts foretold a harsh winter — cold wind like a witch's breath and icy fingers of sleet.

This winter's severity remains to be seen, but the abundance of this autumn's Eastern black walnut yield is indisputable.

Green, tennis ball-sized orbs filled with black goo and tasty, well-protected nuts are raining down in the Appalachian forests and in subdivisions built around the native trees.

Black walnuts produce a nut flavored like no other. For centuries, people have gathered and cooked with the potent kernels.

"You have to let someone eat one, and then they'll never forget it again," explained Floyd County farmer Teresa Caldwell.

"People just love black walnuts in cakes, candies and pies. And especially in ice cream," noted Brian Hammons, president of Hammons Products Co. The third-generation owner of the Missouri firm — the nation's only commercial black-walnut processing company — said the Roanoke area represents a prime market for his product.

"We've always had great sales in the Roanoke area," Hammons said .

Last year's black walnut crop, Hammons noted, was the worst he's seen. Because the nut crop tends to be almost non existent one year and abundant the next, his business fluctuates.

"It's not an easy industry to be in, and that's why we're the only one," he noted. "We weren't able to meet the demand last year. This year is a lot better. Next year will be down again."

With this year's plentiful crop, gatherers are scooping up truckloads of walnuts — with good reason. They've discovered that money really does grow on trees.

Stained black

Harold Young is 81. Born and raised in Stickleyville in far Southwest Virginia's Lee County, he never ventured far from his mountain home because, he says, "water's too good to leave."

Even that clear water won't wash the black walnut stain from Young's strong, leathery hands.

"You'll wear that off, you'll not wash it off," he cautioned as he stood in front of the walnut hulling machine at Bill's Auto Salvage Yard, where 62-year-old Bill Ward sells auto parts and mini four-wheelers, crushes junk cars, salvages scrap metal, recycles aluminum, grazes 31 head of cattle — and hulls black walnuts.

"We do everything here," Ward explained, inhaling a mouthful of smoke from a Silver 100. From Oct. 3 until Nov. 15, however, Ward and his crew mostly do black walnuts.

"We've got one guy who brings two to three loads every day," Ward said. "I bet we get 10 calls a day — 'You buyin' walnuts this year?' "

Bill's Auto Salvage Yard is one of only three walnut hulling stations in Virginia. The others are in Rockingham County's Dayton and Augusta County's Swoope.

While Missouri produces 65 percent of the nation's black walnuts, Hammons said he buys from 15 states including Virginia. He sells to major nut companies such as Diamond, Planters and Fisher.

"If you see black walnuts, chances are they came from us, and some of those came from Virginia," he said.

Hammons Products is paying $13.50 per 100 pounds for hulled walnuts, up 50 cents from last year. Hammons provides the hulling machine and brings in trailers to pick up the bags of nuts. Ward pays his gatherers $10 per 100 pounds, after hulling. He also pays employees to unload the walnuts, hull them, bag them and stack them onto pallets.

Young, who fills 50-pound bags with the rock-hard nuts that spit out of the hulling machine, works pretty much non stop.

"There's 50,000 pounds laying there," he said, pointing to the stacks of walnuts awaiting transport to Missouri.

"That'll smoke like it's on fire," he said of the pile of discarded hulls. "You have to let 'em sit till the acid gets out, then spread them out on the farm. You can use it as mulch. It'll kill anything."

The acid also does a number on the hands.

"It's like poison ivy," he said. "I couldn't even go to sleep the other night my hands was itchin' so bad."

Spare change

Part of the reason Ward operates the huller is to "help out" the folks who collect nature's spare change from the mountains of Lee County and beyond.

"A lot of retired people and young people who don't have a job will come," he noted. "They come from everywhere."

"I work third shift, and it's an easy way to make money for Christmastime," explained Steve Evans, a coal miner from Jonesville, adding that he made $700 for eight days' gathering last year.

"Most people go to the woods. We go to the subdivisions," he noted. "We just get them out of people's yards. They're glad to get rid of them so they don't run over them with their lawn mowers."

Carrie Lee and Jess Seals, ages 74 and 75 respectively and married only six months, said they spent three hours gathering and delivering the walnuts they sold to Ward for $55. Carrie Lee Seals keeps some nuts for her own baking needs.

"I make a jam cake and I put 'em in it."

Travis Begley and Shawn Ramsey, both 22, hauled in 310 pounds of walnuts they had spotted on the roadside.

"We just stopped and scooped 'em up," Ramsey said. "This is money laying on the ground."

They ended up with $32 for their two hours of work. They said they'd use the cash to gas up their Blazer and go back for more walnuts.

Eastern black walnuts are one of the few crops still harvested by hand.

"It's a time-honored tradition," said Jim Chamberlain, a research scientist with the U.S. Forest Service. "Juglans nigra — that's the Eastern black walnut. This is its native range, from the middle of Oklahoma all the way east to the Atlantic Ocean, north into Pennsylvania, south to Georgia."

Chamberlain said nuts and beautiful wood for furniture aren't the only things that make black walnut trees valuable: "The husks are medicinal … My doctor has recommended the walnut juice for athlete's foot. I imagine it turns your feet black, but it gets rid of the fungus."

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has designated the Eastern black walnut "heart healthy," thereby increasing demand for it, and herbalists tout it as a medicinal marvel. Externally, they say, it can treat everything from jock itch to syphilis. Internally, black walnut extracts have been used for gout, rheumatism, glandular disturbances, worms and more. Evidence suggests that chemicals in the nut also may help reduce blood pressure.

In the forest, this year's huge black walnut yield is good news for squirrels and chipmunks, said James Clark, forester for Montgomery, Giles and Pulaski counties.

"They'll store the nuts up for the winter," he said. "There should be a great supply."

Even the black walnuts' unyielding shells are marketable. They're used in abrasives, cosmetics, dynamite and filtration systems.

Gardeners, however, often find black walnut trees to be noxious nuisances. "There are certain plants — primarily tomatoes — that cannot grow around black walnuts," confirmed Clark. He said juglone, a chemical exuded from the decomposing leaves and roots of the tree, can poison certain shrubs and plants.

Got a hammer?

Floyd County farmer Teresa Caldwell, who sells produce and baked goods at the Blacksburg Farmers Market, said she hopes to offer black walnuts at her stand — if she takes a notion to wield a stick.

"It takes a hammer and a piece of concrete [to crack the nuts]," she said. "If you tap them just so, you can get the whole nut out without a million-billion pieces. The nuts have to be dry, though."

Some folks recommend freezing the nuts before cracking them. The moisture inside expands, making the shell open a bit.

"That's an idea," Caldwell said. "It's got to be easier than sitting there with a hammer all day."

People who love black walnuts don't seem to mind the work of extracting the flavorful meat from those tough shells. Those who do mind don't balk at shelling out $2 for a half-cup of the savory nuts at the local grocery store.

"I like black walnuts baked with anything," noted George Hall, owner of Idlewood Farms in Pilot. "It's a very distinctive taste."

Looking for a black walnut hulling station near you? On the Web, visit www.black-walnuts.com.