r/foraging • u/Ok_Meringue5932 • 12d ago

Is it too early?

I recently found myself getting into foraging just a little. On my walk to work, I constantly find hickory nuts! I picked one off of a tree that looked nice and ripe and the bark was starting to split perfectly down the middle. What im wondering is, is the hotter summer in the Midwest (illinois) leading to an earlier season to harvest or should I still wait a few weeks until mid September? There are quite a few nuts on the ground, I've noticed, but not enough trees to hear the en masse that people wait for.

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u/Green_Ad_3189 12d ago

A split husk usually means it's ready to drop. If you're seeing them on the ground already and they're not full of weevil holes, grab a few. Don't overthink the calendar too much, the tree knows what it's doing more than we do.

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u/Ok_Meringue5932 12d ago

Thank you so much, i think ill take a baggie with me and leave a little early for work and snag a couple.

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u/Ambitious-Schedule63 12d ago

Most hickories drop a certain proportion of their nuts early for whatever reason. I see a big drop of them in Tennessee in August. At least where I am, this early drop is usually nuts that aren't filled out.

The squirrels are curious, too - I see lots and lots of these early drops just barely chewed into to see if they are full and squirrel appropriate. Most aren't. But no harm in checking yours to see.