o effect
whatever on the edibility or rancidity of the nut kernel.
MR. STOKE: You spoke of storing the whole nuts in large bins. There you
may have an extreme amount of mold, too, if the nuts are damp.
MR. MANGELSDORF: We try to have storage conditions such that air has
free passage through the bulk of nuts. The mold and the yeast are there
and when they start to grow, their metabolism throws off quite a large
amount of heat. As a result the molding process is speeded up like a
chain reaction, and before long the nuts will be worthless for shelling.
MR. MANGELSDORF: We had nuts until just a few weeks ago from our last
season's gatherings. That's almost a whole year.
MR. SALZER: Can you tell me if the farmer is paid by the weight of the
nuts, or does he receive his pay after the kernels are shelled out? Does
he receive more money if it contains a higher percent of kernels?
MR. MANGELSDORF: He receives his pay on the basis of the whole nut that
he delivers to the plant, and we try to exercise some control over the
quality of the delivery. Samples are taken and cracked, and if most of
the nuts are rotten or the quality is very low, we may reject buying
that entire lot, or we may discount the lot of nuts a certain amount,
depending upon the percentage of the nut meats that are salvaged.
MR. MURPHY: Do you pay a premium for cultivated nuts?
MR. MANGELSDORF: That I can't answer, but I don't believe that they
have this past season. I wouldn't want to go on record as to that. There
is a tremendous difference in the flavor of what we call the "eastern"
black walnut in comparison with the California or western black walnut.
We think that the flavor of the California walnut is not at all
comparable to the eastern black walnut.
MR. MCDANIEL: You don't notice any difference, do you, between the
Missouri and the Kentucky nuts?
MR. MANGELSDORF: No, not in my experience, but there is a tremendous
difference in flavor between the eastern and western.
MR. ROHRBACHER: On what basis do you buy black walnuts?
MR. MANGELSDORF: I understand that each individual sale is an individual
"horse-trading" deal, the price paid, depending upon the quality of
nuts, moisture content, color and other factors. Of course, our aim is
to buy the nuts as cheaply as possible and the object of the fellow
selling the nuts is to get the greatest return that he can from what he
has to offer. So we try to reach a happy medium in our dealings,
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