A friend told me of her fully loaded Black Walnut tree and the need for help in removing some from her yard. She didn't mention how much nuts there were or that the tree looked laden with almost the same amount already fallen on the ground ready to fall onto my head. It was getting cold outside for fall, but was a very warm day for October, last year.
Thanks to Lady Brigide, I came home with 6 paper bags fully loaded with green and differing degrees of oxidizing walnuts. After procurring a bag to a friend, loosing one to mold in the monster of our garage and many buried in our yard by our resident squirrel... (Whom we didn't know existed until our walnuts were on display out on the porch!)... we had about three bags left.
We carefully piled the walnuts on two vented wood shelves and air dried them for months until I shucked what I could on April 7th. Yes, they dried and oxidated for 6 months, but why would I want to brave our frozen icefield of a porch until the thaw of Spring? They definitely weren't edible, but were a perfect black and powdery mix to brew dye.
I started by hulling off material from the walnut, of only what was possible to remove. How a nut can hold onto it's shell after 6 months outside rotting is beyond my understanding. Then after my son and I pulverized the hulls (an entire 5 gallon full amount) to an even more powdery mess, I let half the mixture soak for 3 nights with water covering over to about 3/4th the pot. While the usual one day soak might be encouraged, getting the components together to accomplish a brew of the big staining mess had to be endeavored first. Our kitchen was cleaned beforehand to make sure a stain could be found, cleaned up quickly and hopefully not stain anything else in the process.
The remaining hulls had absorbed water from a rain the day before and was added to the mixture. The previous hulls had basically become a mushy soup consistancy and the next mix barely topped the pot. I'd say over two gallons of water were added, but probably was more. Bringing this mix to a boil after an hour or so and letting cool until manageable, I strained the water to remove the dark dye.
This was a very concentrated brew and I was able to remove about a gallon after straining it from my cook pot. I made three more batches and it was practically the same consistency and possible could have made many more... if my back and neck weren't so tired.
I have found a few recipes for black walnut ink as well, but as to adding iron for a darker coloring, I wasn't sure at the time of brewing of what to do this with. Add some iron nails or cook the hulls in an iron pot to make a darker closer to black brown.
So for some fun, use a few handfuls of these to a small pot and enjoy a very rich dye or add more water for a mild brownish tint.
Now, I have lots of brown dye to experiment with. With a little experiment from this vat. I compared using a gallon of walnut dye to about 6 ounces I gave two sweaters baths for the night. The gallon made the cotton sweater which originally was a light grey, a medium toned brown, actually quite pretty. The 6 ounces tinged another grey cotton sweater a slightly darker grey hue, barely a brown noticeable. I'm hoping that an inbetween mix of some dye will make a nice brown for an outfit for my son. I'll add that later when I make it.