Heartnuts

These nuts are tough to crack! We find a hammer and a hard surface works the best for cracking these lovely nuts open.

The amazing heartnut (Juglans ailantifolia) is a wonderfully buttery, creamy Japanese variety of the usual egg-shaped walnut. Heartnuts are relatively new to North America, but they grow well here, store well for months, and their little, flattened heart-shape shells make them hard to resist. The are an excellent choice for an unusual Valentine's Day gift. Hit the nuts on their edge and they open like a locket. Their shells make a great crafting material, but we carry heartnuts because their kernels taste great both raw and cooked in place of regular walnuts.  

Forbes Wild Foods is a Canadian company that proudly supplies wild, hand-picked foods to restaurants; farmers markets; hotels; gift, food, and health stores; and to individual customers via our online store. All of our foods are sustainably harvested from the Canadian wilderness by trained, knowledgeable pickers. Our suppliers practice progressive harvesting methods -- ones that are both sustainable for its neighbouring plant species and surrounding ecosystem; and for the pickers themselves, whose livelihood is supported by a thriving source of wild foods.

Our specialized pickers (consisting of Indigenous people, women, youth, retirees, farmers, and professional foragers) are usually residents of rural or remote communities who respect the lands that support them. Only those wild foods that grow in great abundance and whose survival is not in danger are considered for harvest. Forbes Wild Foods also works with regional and northern wild food producers to help propagate rare wild food plants by reintroducing them to lands that need remedial attention, such as overgrazed woodlots and pastures.