Black walnuts have a distinctive, strong flavor that people either love or hate. If you like them, they'll give a warm, delicious flavor to most any baked good calling for nuts. They're good in ice cream, too. Use them in recipes where you want the nut flavor to be the star. It's an "aggressive" flavor that doesn't sit in the background as an accent the way pecans or English walnuts do.

I would say you're fortunate to have a tree to produce all the black walnuts you can use, but knowing how difficult they are to shell, I won't. LOL My late grandpa was an ace black-walnut sheller. He had such patience for it, he could remove the meats in whole pieces! Once you try it yourself, you'll understand what a feat that is.

Here is a URL to the website of the University of Minnesota that tells all you need to know about growing, harvesting, shelling, and storing those wonderful nuts.

http://www.extension.umn.edu/yardandgarden/ygbriefs/h404blkwal.html