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Treacodactyl

Hazel nut types, observations & tips

Are these all just hazel nuts or would you class some more as cobnuts, filberts or something else?

They are all from a small patch of land, the smaller ones from old trees and the larger ones from trees planted 10 years ago. Some of the nuts are over an inch long and completely fill their shells. Razz



As we managed to gather several kilos of them and we could easily collect more is there an easy way to shell them?
sean

Several kilos, you lucky, lucky person you. There's no easy way to shell them though so I recommend posting them to me.
tahir

sean wrote:
I recommend posting them to me.


Or me
lettucewoman

the large ones with very frilly covers which completely cover the nut are cob nuts I think...


....................and you could post some to me too...the squiggles have had all ours Sad Sad Sad Sad
Treacodactyl

I think it's worth looking around. Even where I picked these some trees had been stripped (not by squirrels but mice or voles, you can tell by the discarded shells) but then other trees were covered and many had fallen still intact. I've also walked past trees in the street that have piles of whole nuts underneath.
Nicky cigreen

they are all hazelnuts imo - they come in many shapes and sizes

we are gathering loads this year.. and just like the blackberries, we notice they come ripe in turn depending on location.

the best tree is the one over bare gound, so we can see what has fallen as well as roll them out of their husks on the tree. Lots are being had by mice etc, but there are plenty to go around. the squirrrel has vanished.. in a wonderful moment of timing.

I reckon our cat had him.. he's had two to our knowledge this year already (he's very proud and likes to show us) ..I love my cat. next time someone wonders why we keep a cat.. must remember this..
mochyn

Well, there are three names for nuts found in Britain from the genus Corylus: hazel, filbert and cob. Which is which and what (if any) the differneces are I don't know...
hedgehogpie

Have a look here: http://www.kentishcobnutsassociation.org.uk/
Treacodactyl

I've looked at KCA but I don't think they make it clear. Looking at Wiki and a few other places Hazel is the blanket term for all hazels, common hazel (corylus avellana) is the one found in the wild and refered to cob nuts and has cultivars which are commercially grown. Filberts is a different variety (Corylus maxima).

Now, I'm not sure if the ones that are large and oval are just a selected common hazel or a filbert. I think it's probably just a common hazel but there's a few walnut trees about so perhaps something more cultivated was planted?
welsh lamb

We have a lovely old cob nut tree in our garden but have NEVER managed to beat the squirrels to them Twisted Evil
Nicky cigreen

I spose they could have mixed with some cultivated genes?

but we have been picking from our hedgerows - these are really old hedges with a lot of hazel amongst them, and the size and shapes of the nuts just seem to vary a lot.
OP

Treacodactyl wrote:
Hazel is the blanket term for all hazels, common hazel (corylus avellana) is the one found in the wild and refered to cob nuts and has cultivars which are commercially grown. Filberts is a different variety (Corylus maxima).

I think that is right. I vaguely recall that filberts have long husks covering the nut ("full beards"), and cobnuts have short husks ... not 100% sure though.
Treacodactyl

From the pics I've seen filberts have much longer husks than the shell, often twice as long. I think mine aren't filberts as the husk is shorter than the filberts I've seen.
sarahloo

colour it green wrote:

I reckon our cat had him.. he's had two to our knowledge this year already (he's very proud and likes to show us) ..I love my cat. next time someone wonders why we keep a cat.. must remember this..


Ever thought of sharing your cat's dinner? I've often wondered if cats could be trained/encouraged to do a bit of hunting for us... mine, however, prefers moths and spiders to squirrels and rabbits...
Treacodactyl

I wasn't looking forward to opening these but I've just found out something very useful. Having left them for a week, the nuts that have fallen out of the husks have dried a little and it makes them much easier to crack without squashing the edible core. The nuts still in the husks are fresher, so I guess leaving them in the husks means they'll keep longer.

I'm quite pleased to find an easier way to open them, looks like they could provide a decent amount of food for people in the UK without much bother.

I've picked out some of the largest nuts, the longest is just over an inch, and the ones I've just shelled and they make a nice piccy.

Sally Too

I planted a few hazel nut trees last year. Several of the common variety and one cultivar. No nuts yet, but early days.

Those nuts look fantastic.

Now what do you plan to do with them next?
Treacodactyl

Tonight we had hazelnut, garlic and basil pesto again, this time with just a hint of chilli. The rest of the shelled ones will go into some oat biscuits and I'll have a think what to do with the rest. I'd like to try some ground up in a cake mix, a bit like ground almonds, and I would like to try something savoury like a maize tortilla but made with ground hazel nuts, just to see what they're like.
Sally Too

Sounds delicious. I want to come to your house for dinner. Very Happy Cool
Treacodactyl

Unfortunately the dining table is covered in hops, but in a few weeks some of them will be various home made beers to go with the hazelnuts. Cool All I need is a spaghetti tree for the whole meal to be home made. Laughing

Just been reading Ray Mears wild food book and he suggests roasting the hazelnuts in their shells and then they can keep for a couple of years which sounds ideal.

This morning I'm nibbling fresh, plump, home grown sunflower seeds, I wonder if I was a parrot or dormouse in a previous life?
Midland Spinner

A friend has a cultivated hazel nut tree and told me I could pick some. Sadly all the ripe / brown ones I have collected so far have had big fat grubs inside, but the majority aren't ripe yet.
Is it like plums where the ones that 'ripen' early are the ones with bugs in and if I am patient and wait for the rest they may be grub free?
Treacodactyl

Some more observations...

In our garden where we have two different types of hazels I think one type has been badly affected by the late frost and has hardly any fruit. The other is covered this year so having a mix of varieties could be quite useful if they flower at different times. I wonder if a mix of varieties would also help pollination?

I'm pleased to see that our woodland hazels are also covered this year and some nuts seem to be particularly large again. I wonder if the fruit from the large fruiting trees would breed other large fruiting hazels or if they wouldn't bear much resemblance to their parents like apples?

I think we'll try and get a few cultivators planted this year and try growing on some of our own seed to plant up some of the gaps.

Edit to add, looking forward to trying hazelnut flour pancakes this year.
jamanda

Midland Spinner wrote:
A friend has a cultivated hazel nut tree and told me I could pick some. Sadly all the ripe / brown ones I have collected so far have had big fat grubs inside, but the majority aren't ripe yet.
Is it like plums where the ones that 'ripen' early are the ones with bugs in and if I am patient and wait for the rest they may be grub free?


Dunno. Round here the darn squirrels get them if you are patient and wait. Rolling Eyes
Lorrainelovesplants

Treacodactyl...interested in your mentioning hops....
I took a couple of cuttings from a friends hop and they have both taken...
now we have a windy site, but were thinking we could plant them into a leylandii....any other suggestions...would like the hops for beermaking...
my concern is that the soil will be very dry....
Treacodactyl

When I lived in a house where hops had taken over half the garden I thought they were impossible to kill. However, when cultivating varieties for brewing they can be a bit temperamental, at least to establish. I'd keep them well watered for the first year, they also don't need to be planted right next to a tree but several feet away and they can either have a few sticks put in to train them to the tree or they will grow along the ground.

However, once they establish they might do a fair bit of damage to the leylandii, some might say that's a good thing, but when the hops die back in winter you might have dead patches on your trees.
Lorrainelovesplants

Shocked
damage a leylandii?......Is such a thing possible?

the other option is up some scraggy willow trees that no-one would miss......are they rabbit proof?

As they are in pots at the mo....should I wait to plant out till they are a certain size?
Treacodactyl

Perhaps not kill them but they might leave them unsightly. Not sure about rabbits, I don't think they would single them out but it wouldn't harm to put some thorny twigs over their base.

As for pots I've found hops aren't that fond of restrain so it needs to be a decent sized pot once they are growing. They should be fine this year, perhaps some shelter if you overwinter them in the pots, and plant out next spring.
Lorrainelovesplants

Thanks..... Smile

We have wild hazel in the hedge surrounding our little place...get some nuts, think they are more of a filbert type...but just common or garden hazel...smaller nuts than the ones in your photos.
Treacodactyl

This years harvest from a single plant in our garden, in a middle of the main flower bed.



That plant has done very well but others seem to have been hit by the late frost and hardly have any nuts. Most of the ones we have go have set nuts very well, about 90-95% of the nuts have something inside.

Our woodland trees have set well and we will try to harvest them in the next month, might try making some flour out of them this year. We've tried roasting the fresh ones in their shell and they turn out really good, sort of cross between a cooked chestnut and a raw hazel nut in flavour - much better eaten warm/hot than cold though.
matt_hooks

A hint for cracking them without damaging the meat. Take your nut, and place it on a hard surface, such as a large flat stone, paving slab or good solid wooden chopping board. The trick is to place them with the flat side down (the non-shiny bit where the husk was attached) and then gently tap the pointy end with something large and heavy. Another smaller rock does well, or a standard claw hammer will do the job admirably if you want to be refined. Tap until you hear the "crack" of the shell giving up, then press down and find the crack and prise the shell open.

I've done a few hundred nuts this year, but seem to be finding a lot of either bad nuts or completely empty shells. And out experiment in roasting in the shell yielded only very soft mushy nuts, which tasted good, not unlike nutella really, but didn't look like they would keep for long, so we ate them all in various forms!
Lorrainelovesplants

saw filberts for sale at a stall at Ludlow Food Festival...much bigger than anything I get off our hazels here. Double the size.

Id like to buy a reliable (and cheap)variety for bigger nuts. Or can you just take a cutting - hazel roots quite readily...
Treacodactyl

Does hazel root easily from cuttings? I thought it was pleached/layered and I've not had much success with that either, I get quite a few self sown seedlings though.
Lorrainelovesplants

Ive a farmer friend who cut hazel wands 4 ft long about a finger thick, tied them in bundles of about 50 and put them in a hole in the ground, bottoms cut on the slant. Over 50% of them rooted...he wanted to create a new hedge.
Treacodactyl

Ooh, thanks for that Lorraine, I might give that a go. Do you know when he took the cuttings?

If I get enough to root I'll send a few of the larger nut ones to you, I expect they fruit much quicker from cuttings than seed as well.
Lorrainelovesplants

Smile

Super. Will see him this week - its the farmer we do lambing for....

From memory i think it was this time of year - Im sure they were hardwood cuttings, but Im phoning him at tea time, and will ask again.

When i take our lambs up next week, Ill get a peek at the size of his nuts.... Embarassed You know what i mean...
Treacodactyl

This year's nuts from our woodland, a couple of small 'wild' ones, about the size of a penny, and a few of the planted larger ones, one's an inch wide by almost and inch and over and inch long - might try growing that one.

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