How to Make a Buckeye Necklace (2024)

FAQs

What does it mean to carry a buckeye in your pocket? ›

A buckeye does its best work if it's inside your pocket. If you carry a buckeye in your pocket, it'll bring you good luck. Just like a rabbit's foot or a horseshoe or a four-leaf clover, the buckeye attracts good fortune.

During September, buckeyes, which are large, shiny brown seeds, can be found underneath Aesculus trees. According to legend, carrying a pocketful of buckeyes brings good luck. Early Native Americans called these seeds buckeyes for their resemblance to the eyes of male deer, known as bucks.

Removing the shell and roasting the nut neutralizes its harmful tannic acid content and makes for a protein-packed snack. If not prepared properly though, buckeye nuts are toxic to humans, causing symptoms including weakness, diarrhea, vomiting, paralysis, and death.

Make sure your buckeyes stay fresh for as long as possible! The buckeyes should be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator to keep them nice and fresh. Stored in this way, they will keep for about 1 month (although good luck keeping them that long without eating them all, ha!).

Native Americans once used buckeyes for both nutritional and medicinal purposes. These tribes would crush and knead the nuts into a salve for rashes and cuts. Today, some believe that buckeyes can relieve rheumatism and arthritis pain.

Poisonous Plant: All parts of the plant (leaves, bark, fruit) are highly toxic if ingested – because of the glycoside aesculin, the saponin aescin, and possibly alkaloids. Symptoms are muscle weakness and paralysis, dilated pupils, vomiting, diarrhea, depression, paralysis, and stupor.

A small, shiny, dark brown nut with a light tan patch that comes from the official state tree of Ohio, the buckeye tree. According to folklore, the Buckeye resembles the eye of a deer and carrying one brings good luck.

Superstitious thinkers believe carrying a buckeye nut in your pocket will ward off bad luck. But, for the most part, the trees and their nuts are relatively impractical. The bark smells bad. The wood does not burn well and the nut is poisonous.

These seeds are popularly believed to bring good luck, and school children especially still carry them in their pockets as a charm. And while highly poisonous, buckeye seeds contain much protein and were used as a food source by Native Americans who boiled and leached them to remove their toxins.

The seeds are poisonous to humans in the raw state. Thus, the nuts were cracked open with a rock, the shells removed, the seeds pounded into flour, and their toxic saponins removed in a lengthy leaching process. The meal was subsequently cooked and eaten.

What are you supposed to do with buckeyes? ›

These seeds are popularly believed to bring good luck, and school children especially still carry them in their pockets as a charm. And while highly poisonous, buckeye seeds contain much protein and were used as a food source by Native Americans who boiled and leached them to remove their toxins.

Seeds are removed by peeling the capsule apart. Seeds resemble edible chestnuts, but Ohio buckeye fruits are not edible and can be toxic. Seeds of Ohio buckeye should not be allowed to dry out. They can be stored for short periods (1 year) in air tight containers in the refrigerator if not allowed to dry out.

How do you keep buckeyes from sweating? It's hard to entirely prevent condensation from a chilled candy (without adding preservatives), but there are a few things you can do to help. If you freeze the peanut butter balls before dipping, be sure to keep them covered as they await dipping.