The process to make Coaldale pickled walnuts

The process of making pickled walnuts is quite an interesting one. There is only a small window in the year when we can actually produce pickled walnuts. During this six week period is where we make all of our pickled walnut product. 

We first need to pick the green walnuts by hand.  The reason we do this is because we need to be selective about which walnuts are used. We look at the size and whether they are blemished in any way. 

The walnuts that are selected are then pricked with a needle, using our specially-designed walnut-pricking machine. They are then put into a barrel with brine. The brine gets changed several times throughout the process to draw out the bitter green juice from the walnuts. 

After this they are gently dried in a dehydrator. The walnuts then come out of the dryer and into the big cook pot to be briefly cooked in the vinegar and spice syrup after which they get hand packed into jars. Those jars are then filled with the beautiful spiced and nutty syrup. The lids and labels then get put on to jars. 

Care is taken with every single jar before they get boxed up.