Actually Knot, the shell is green while they grow. When they ripen and fall from the tree is when it starts to dry and turn black.
When they are green, it's like a tennis ball and very hard. As the shell rots and blackens it releases from the nut to what you see in the grocery store.
The middle one was in a shell like a walnut but now the shell is gone the nut is hard and has nutmeat inside.
When I lived in NC I roasted some chestnuts and discovered I love them!
I was wondering if the middle might be hickory or hazelnuts.
I've been thinking about figuring out how to identify all the trees and didn't like the way I thought to do it,, by searching for pics of trees I thought it was.. I never mentioned it to hubby...
He was out of town this week and came home with an Autobahn Society tree book
Obviously he was thinking the same thing too In honor of your thread about that I was going to title this,,- I put my nuts on the scanner so...
Ever scanned your nuts??
I scanned my nuts yesterday.
But at the last minute backed out 
Linear Mode
