Hammons Products Company has been family-owned since Ralph Hammons began buying Black Walnuts in 1946. American Black walnuts are a completely wild crop, hand-foraged each fall by locals across the heartland. They have a rich, earthy flavor that’s derived from the roots of the tree—much, in the same way, the flavor of wine comes from the vineyard’s soil.
Wild, all-natural, hand-foraged, locally-sourced, non-GMO, and sustainable, Hammons Black Walnuts stem all the way back to a small grocery store owner with a good idea. In 1946, Ralph Hammons witnessed the abundance of Black Walnuts that grew wildly around the Ozarks and Midwest, bought a nut-cracking machine, and the rest was history.
According to a press release, just during that first year, Ralph Hammons bought and cracked 100,000 pounds of Black Walnuts, launching the “Missouri Dandy” brand in the late 1940s and early 1950s. With a redesigned cracking machine and new Stockton-based plant in tow, the Hammons company was poised for growth.
In the 1970s as Ralph’s son, Dwain Hammons assumed leadership of the company, Dwain’s wife Donna launched the Missouri Dandy Pantry retail brand. In 1997, the company’s leadership role was again passed to their son, Brian Hammons, who remains CEO today.
Now a primary processor, distributor, and marketer of Black Walnuts in the United States, the company has expanded to nationwide distribution while remaining dedicated to its original harvesting and hulling techniques. Hammons says it purchases wild, hand-harvested nuts through 215 hulling stations across 11 states, cracking and shelling nearly 25 million pounds of Black Walnuts each year.
According to andnowuknow.com. Source of photos: internet
