Hammons Products Co. is a family-owned business founded in 1946 by WWII veteran Ralph Hammons, the owner of a local grocery store in southwestern Missouri. His customers used local, native Black Walnuts for baking and cooking but lacked a reliable source of packaged, shelled nuts. For generations, families collected nuts from the abundant wild Black Walnut trees in the fall and had to crack the incredibly hard shells by hand. Hammons reasoned that his customers and people throughout the region would appreciate Black Walnuts without the effort, and the company was born.
Today, Hammons collects hand-harvested, sustainable wild Black Walnuts from the Midwest United States and sells nut meats, protein powder, and oil nationwide. Wild Black Walnuts have also been added to the popular ice cream market and are gaining popularity as a plant-based superfood ingredient for nutritional bars.
Due to an extremely hard shell and cracking process, Black Walnuts nutmeats are pieces. Other tree nuts usually have about a 60-70% yield, but Black Walnuts have about a 5-6% yield. This is one reason that Black Walnuts have always been a higher-priced product. Hammons purchases, on average, 20 million pounds of in-shell product each fall in October and then processes the nuts throughout the next year, assuring a stable supply.
Hammons distributes Black Walnuts to many grocery stores, specialty stores, and club stores across the US. We have a product for every business sector depending on the desired nutmeat size.
Hammons has one SQF-certified facility in Stockton, MO, where all Black Walnuts are processed and packaged. We are very active in our local community and remain the largest employer in our hometown. In the fall, we also contribute to local communities by purchasing hand-harvested nuts collected from backyards, forests, and fields. Our Purpose: To connect people and create memories with the natural goodness of Wild Black Walnuts.
This has been a way for families to connect and spend time with each other while earning extra cash for whatever their needs are. We have an average of 200 operators in 13 states, with approximately 65% coming from Missouri.
What is our “WOW” factor?
The Bold, Wild Walnut. Black Walnuts are very different from the more common English walnuts and stand alone among all tree nuts for nutrition and flavor. They are hand-harvested throughout the Midwest region by millions of people who have them in their yards and pastures. Black Walnuts are highly sustainable as they are planted mostly by squirrels, and then the trees are watered by Mother Nature. They have a robust flavor that no other nut can compare to. They also have a rich history as a prized food. Native Americans actively collected them for cooking and a variety of other uses. Wild Black Walnuts are being discovered today by a new generation of consumers seeking healthy, nutritional, tasty, plant-based superfoods.
Since Black Walnuts are a wild crop, they have more of a wild mushroom or truffle flavor that consumers look for as they make their heirloom dishes. Black Walnuts have 57% more protein than English walnuts and are a great source of healthy fats, omega-3, magnesium, Potassium, iron, and only three carbohydrates.