Hickory refers to trees of the genus Carya, native to eastern North America and parts of East Asia. Several species produce edible nuts, with the shagbark hickory (Carya ovata) and shellbark hickory (Carya laciniosa) being the most commonly eaten. Hickory nuts have a rich, buttery flavour that is sometimes compared to pecans — which are, in fact, a closely related species within the same genus.
Hickory nuts were a staple food for many Indigenous North American peoples, who ground the kernels into a paste or milk used in cooking. European settlers also adopted hickory nuts, though commercial cultivation never developed to the same extent as other tree nuts. The trees are slow-growing, and the thick, hard shells make processing difficult compared to pecans or walnuts.
Today, hickory nuts are primarily a foraged or small-orchard product rather than a major commercial crop. The trees are perhaps better known globally for their wood, which is prized for smoking meats due to its distinctive flavour.
How it's produced
Hickory nuts come from both wild trees and small cultivated orchards, predominantly in the eastern United States. Wild harvesting remains common — the nuts fall naturally in autumn and are gathered from the ground. The thick shells require cracking with a heavy nutcracker or hammer, and the kernels must be carefully picked out from the shell fragments.
Commercial hickory nut production is very limited due to the trees’ slow growth (they can take 10 to 15 years to begin bearing), irregular annual yields, and the difficulty of mechanical shelling. There is no significant hickory nut industry in Australia; any available product is imported, typically from North American specialty suppliers.
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