Gardening

when I was a child, but I do remember it was so messy. Black walnuts will turn you and everything else black when they are cleaned, so wear gloves. Also, you clean them when they are black or getting black, so they were not rotten. That is how they got the name, I suppose. I do know that at some point, my parents and grandparents decided that they were not worth all the trouble to clean (and they were super frugal depression era folks). Maybe there is a better way than they used.

I don't know why your nuts are soft, but they should not be. Maybe they were not ready to harvest???