I know this has nothing to do with trapping but I thought I'd share this with you anyway. I'm a pistachio nut freak. I can purchase either the ones in the shells, or the ones without shells. I figured I'd purchase the cheaper ones that are still in the hulls. Besides the price, my hands, being an x-smoker, needed something to do. So one time I purchased a 16 oz package and another time an 8 oz one. Each time I consumed, I kept all of the hulls in a baggie to weigh them after the package was emptied. Turns out that exactly half of the original weight wound up in weight in hulls. So when you're comparing prices between shelled or un-shelled, you better double the price of the un-shelled ones for a more accurate comparison.

Frank.

Frank,
I hope you get trapping soon, so you have more to do than weigh empty peanut shells. Maybe you could count stars---or count how many leaves are falling on your lawn today.


Ron

What I want to know is which one, shelled or unshelled, is a better deal!

Brian, you have to see which ones are on a sale price. Usually the unshelled ones are cheaper, but sometimes not by very much. I enjoy carrying a snack sized baggie of shelled ones along when I snowshoe to check traps, or in the deer blind. And, Mr. Finewood, counting stars or leaves is beyond me ability as I can only count up to twenty one.

Frank.

Now you need to decide weather natural or dyed shells are better

Here at work I've been selling black walnut kernels. Friend of mine, he's 80 years old, he and his wife cracked and picked out over 100 pounds of nuts last season. Not sure what they're up to this fall? Nice, big, clean kernels too. Not a bunch of crumbs in the bags either. Wholesale, I pay him $10 a pound, you can see the price on the bags. Figure 100 X $10, gives them a little spending money.



If any of you have never cracked and picked out walnut kernels, it's a lotta work! Hopefully I can find someone that will crack out hickory nuts, that is a pain, and they are expensive! But, darn they are good in cakes and such!

I always wondered why they bothered to dye them.

Back in grade school we used to see who could get the best red lips, fingers, chin, etc. We were an awful mess for our teachers! Sure don't need that now.

Frank.