Hammons Products

The Hammons Products Company , still family-owned , is the world's premier supplier of black walnut products. Ralph Hammons, who owned a small grocery store in the southwest Missouri town of Stockton, established the company in 1945 when he began buying black walnuts from local Ozarks residents. That first year, he shipped the nuts to a company in Virginia for processing. In 1946 Ralph bought a cracking machine and began selling his own "Missouri Dandy" black walnut nutmeats. Demand for this high-quality brand grew and it later became the "Hammons" brand. Every fall people from the Midwest and East-Central United States gather wild black walnuts by hand from their lawns and fields and sell them to local buyers for delivery to Hammons. Last year Hammons purchased black walnuts from more than 210 buying locations in 10 states. Today the company is led by Brian Hammons, Ralph's grandson and company president.