Tasting the details: The Nut and its shell

Did you know that the place that produces more nuts in the world is California?

At present United States citizens consume 400 millions of kg of different nuts.

Despite they are new incomers in the Nuts industry, the USA power in this market is huge. To start with, California is the Nut paradise because of they are the main worldwide producer of this product (food, nuts…?). In particular, the company Diamond food Inc has 51.000 square meters of walnut trees orchards and they receive 118 million kilograms of nuts every year. Their industrial facilities are in Stockton, where the 98% of the USA walnut trees are grown. Its history as a reference company in nut packing dates back to ninety years ago.

If they offer so many millions of kilograms of nuts it is because American people claims it too. American citizens eat more than 400 million kilograms of nuts every year, this mean that nuts are important indeed in the “made in USA diet”

This high consumption has an immediate consequence visible to the naked-eye: the excessive amount of nut shells resulting and the multiple ways that this product may be reused. Its ecological value is invaluable, it is fundamental for the sustainability of some industry sectors.

In our last post we saw how the multinational Shell pro used this shell as an alternative to sandblast cleaning .But there is more.

For example, the ground walnut shell was used to wrap dynamite, in water filtration, as plywood and even for some special effects in Hollywood films.

 

A few weeks ago, an interesting project was revealed in Guipuzcoa, Spain. It is about the use of walnut shells to turn them into a natural dye through a pressure and heat process.

This way of recycling is part of a networking that implies other industries and intends to transform the textile industry into a more sustainable model.

Changing the subject, we move from a project that aims to help other companies with innovation and sustainability to a preventive measure to avoid natural disasters: ground walnut shell can be injected in oil wells helping to prevent potential leaks of gas and crude oil caused by the cracks that well drilling produce. This allows to avoid leaks of oil that would harm the environment very badly.

 

Regarding hair, as we can see in this article on the Uncomo webpage, the regular use of walnut shells is helpful to strengthen weak hair, hair loss or as hair dye if we are afraid of the grey hair.

Our overall health is reinforced thanks to components such as phosphorous, that keeps our hair healthy and strong; potassium and iron, whose mineral properties carry the oxygen to red corpuscles; zinc that keeps our nails, skin and hair healthy; and the immune characteristics of calcium that maintains our hair properly.

 

As you can see , an endless number of reuses for walnut shell, as well as the huge numbers in the USA market, show us how important nuts are in the world. A product that has been with us for a longer time that we can imagine.

In fact, in Iran, petrified nut shells older than 7000 years old have been found

Even older than that, like 8000 years ago, people traded with nuts in Europe, Asia and Middle East.

It was said by then that nuts were the Gods´ food and they were associated with fertility. If those primitive inhabitants knew all the different uses that we give to nut shells today, they would adore this organic, healthy and essential product even more than they did.