Hazel nut variance

[slowworm]

I wonder whether the fact that the Hazelnuts are not getting eaten is why they are bigger this year ?

I can't comment for your area but we've had a fairly cool and dry year down here. I think the large hazelnut crop here is down to the fact we've not had a hard late frost, of much frost at all.

The plants I collect from produce large nuts every year, I'm sure they were more productive a few years ago but they are getting shaded out a bit by other trees in my woodland.

 

[Janne]

Would spreading a bit of fertilizer improve the crop?

 

[Nice65]

Nuts!.... whole hazel nuts!
View attachment 55576 Let's get cracking!

Ooh, show off. A ‘cracking’ haul.

The wind and rain we had here in August knocked a lot of little nuts down. I gathered them and left them for a bit to dry, but they were too young and got mould. I’m still finding loads but nothing like yours.

More wind and rain over the last few days have knocked off a lot of the smaller conkers and Sweet Chestnuts. I’m hoping it’s like thinning the fruit on an overloaded apple tree and the rest of the chestnuts get to grow huge. I got some good ones from young trees last year, trees I wouldn’t have expected to produce much other than those little brown slips of seeds.

 

[Woody girl]

Ooh, show off. A ‘cracking’ haul.

The wind and rain we had here in August knocked a lot of little nuts down. I gathered them and left them for a bit to dry, but they were too young and got mould. I’m still finding loads but nothing like yours.

More wind and rain over the last few days have knocked off a lot of the smaller conkers and Sweet Chestnuts. I’m hoping it’s like thinning the fruit on an overloaded apple tree and the rest of the chestnuts get to grow huge. I got some good ones from young trees last year, trees I wouldn’t have expected to produce much other than those little brown slips of seeds.

I'm still picking up a pocketful a day.! I was using a broom to sweep them into piles last week.
I see a basket full of nutella, hazel nut liqueur, nut butter, may even try hazelnut milk. I know you can do it with almond nuts.
I'm going to have a cracking time.... or I may crack up before I get that far, and go totaly nuts. .
I'm a bit worried about having to de shell that many hazels! I'm gonna wear my ancient nutcrackers out.
It's a great haul tho. Best of my foraging efforts ever. My back and knees are still aching after the hours spent picking them all up.

 

[Janne]

You need to shell out on a more modern, efficient nut cracker.
It will then be like a dance!

 

[Robson Valley]

I wonder what sort of ingenuity paleo people used for nut cracking.
Must have been on a family-feeding scale, or community scale.

 

[Janne]

Placed nut on a larger, flat stone.
Smacked it either with another, smaller stone, or a suitable piece of an antler.

The skeletal remains ( teeth) do not show that they used the teeth.

Extrapolating today living ‘primitive’ peoples habits, it was a woman’s job.

 

[Robson Valley]

I've seen stones with pits of varying depths pecked into them.
Interpreted as a nut-cracker stone for different sizes.
Certainly would work that way.

My kids once had access to hazel nuts and walnuts which washed down an old creek by the house.
They learned how to avoid bruising fingers.

 

[Janne]

I guess somebody will soon incorporate hazel nut cracking in their next YouTube vid?