How the Eastern Black Walnut Gained Fans and Foes

What BBN said about it

1. 

   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorIt's the eastern black walnut. One of the most abundant trees in the eastern United States, and its numbers are going up.

2. 

   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorPoint one. For a lot of homeowners, the walnuts stain their hands and their asphalt driveways when they fall. That's the whole relationship.

3. 

   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorThey fall, and something gets stained.

4. 

   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorPoint two.

5. 

   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorA farmer in Gap, Pennsylvania, has about a hundred of these trees, and he says, quote, if you had a hundred people eat them, half would like them and half would hate them.

6. 

   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorSo the prized ingredient on those fancy menus is basically a dice roll in a shell. Half the dining room is being polite.

7. 

   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorPoint three. Every part of the tree contains juglone, which is toxic to many other plants but considered safe for humans and animals to eat.

8. 

   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorRead that flat. The tree poisons its neighbors, drops stains on your driveway, and we call that a pantry item.

9. 

   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorI've worked with people like that.

10. 

    Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorAnd here's what gets me, folks. A company in Stockton, Missouri collects around twenty million pounds of these every year, KCUR reported. Twenty million pounds.

11. 

    Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorSomebody's driveway was involved.

12. 

    Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorVerdict: a chore and a blessing, same nut. If you're a chef who wants a bucket of blessing, I have a driveway.

13. 

    Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorBring your own bucket.