Hazelnuts

[rancid badger]

When is the best time time to gather these?
can they be gathered while still a bit green or must they be fully ripe and brown?
year after year the hazels in Chopwell Wood are heaving with nuts but if they are left to go brown they simply disappear!
Can they be roasted while still green?

this is one of those things that you tend to think you should know but no one I've spoken to up here can give me a straight answer!

Kind regards
R.B.

 

[xylaria]

I have found a local hedgerow that is heaving with hazelnuts. We picked quite a few at the weekend. The outside of the cob was still green on a lot of them. We tried some raw, and roasted the rest for ten minutes. They were soft and more like chestnuts than hazelnuts. Still very nice.

I am going out picking with a friend tomorrow who was brought up where they are comerical crop in south germany. She says they are still a bit under ripe, but they are fine to eat like that. She has never seen a properly ripe hazelnut in britian and she has lived here 15 years! I am sure I will know more about them tomorrow.

 

[John Fenna]

I know the white, sweet underripe hazel nuts as "milk nuts" - something to do with their milk white , creamy texture I guess.... tasty though!

 

[Biddlesby]

Same old story for me: the squirrels got there first.

 

[malcolmc]

I grow hazels and always harvest the nuts green at this time of year. They can be eaten green but if left in a cold and dry airy place they will continue to ripen off the tree.

In my experience if you see a ripe (brown) hazel nut on a tree the squirrels have left it for a reason (it is likely to be bad). Squirrels are very efficient at collecting all the edible ones; hence the early harvest to beat them.

Best of luck with the foraging.

 

[bushcraftbob]

Has anyone noticed how big the hazelnuts are this year? We have some whoppers in oxfordshire. I have been picking for last week or two, and i think i prefer them a bit underr-ipe, a lot more soft and moist thatn when they're older.

 

[RobertRogers]

Yep, here in Northern NH USA the hazelnuts make excellent eating. Problem is that the squirrels are in a race with each other to collect them - so the nuts tend to be harvested when still a little green because if one creature waits too long then another will get them first. It's the hazelnut wars. Only when I am lucky I can find few that haven't been found and they are delicious.

 

[heath]

I have collected these a few times now but whenever I open them up there's nothing inside.

 

[rancid badger]

Thats great chaps and chap-ets! I went off this afternoon a-foraging for nuts and ended up with half a pint of blea berries and a belly full of blackberries! nuts have gone! we haven't got much in the way of apples this year either. There are several locations in the wood which really were sagging with yarkers last year and this year there's nowt!. Even the ones on overhangs, which are out of the reach of porch monkies are more or less bare.( a porch monkey is a sub species of chav/charva which, sadly, cannot climb tree's)

Anyway thanks again
kind regards
R.B.

 

[stevesteve]

I've pickled me nuts!

I picked a few dozen semi ripe ones and left them in Sarsons malty pickling vinegar. Anyone ever tried that?

Cheers,
Steve

 

[bushcraftbob]

nope never tried but would like to give it a go as am a big fan of pickled walnuts! So u have to take the nuts out of the shell first and then put them in the vinegar??? sorry if sounds daft question

 

[stevesteve]

Yes that pretty much sums up my whole process. I looked up pickled walnuts and there are various stages in brine, then vinegar. Too much trouble by half.

I just shelled the hazel nuts, removed as much of the brown fluff (that's a botanical term you understand ) and bunged them in a clean jar with the vinegar. Some floated, some did not.

Just have to wait until Christmas, then out the'll come with some port and stilton.

Cheers,
Steve

 

[pothunter]

Squirrels are the least of my problems, the pikies cleaned up last year and very efficient they were to.

I'm hoping to find some walnuts, locally known as bannuts, to put into honey.

We have an almond tree locally but it appears to have a fungal disease and has produced little or no fruit this year.

Generally most wild fruit appears to be doing well I take this as some compensation for the poor performance of about everything we planted earlier in the year, blight, mildew, mice you name it we had it.

Happy foraging, Pothunter.

 

[Bushpig]

I have recently found a good hazelnut source but many are still green, some are not and I have picked those. I will return for the others in a few days to a week...though I am unsure whether to expect them to ripen much more in this odd season we are having?

Other than pickling does anyone know preservation methods for hazelnuts? I thought of making nut cutlets maybe and freezing them? Any ideas welcome.

Bushpig

 

[Insel Affen]

Glad I found this thread, even though it's old. ������

Seems to be that you can pick Hazelnuts any time whilst still green (probably August onwards) and then leave them to ripen up in a cupboard or somewhere until they are brown and yummy! Still a few on the bushes out here in Germany that the squirrels haven't got to yet.

 

[PDA1]

It's true everywhere that the blasted squirrels get there just before you do. Makes you want to collect soft fruit. However, when they are ripe, over here, you are in competition with Black Bears to get them. You don;t really want to be on his/her patch when he or she arrives.

 

[Janne]

I found that if you pick them a little bot too early, the nut inside is very small.
I like hazelnuts ( and filberts) fresh from the bush, so sweet!

 

[Robson Valley]

I buy shelled pecan nut meat for baking and keep them in plastic bags in the freezer.
I can't see how hazel nuts could be any different, with or without shells.

 

[Fraxinus]

This year I have managed to collect a good two handed cup full of Kentish Cobnuts from the tree in our garden, most from the floor among some sign of grey squirrel and rodent activity (the empty shells are the clue) it has taken a week to gather them off the lawn, although I have snaffled the odd lower hanging ones for a quick treat
The saved ones I will roast after shelling this week and probably pig out on them (as Suzy does not like nuts)
Wet and pale green they have a pleasant sweet taste with a crunch to them like a small radish.

Rob

 

[Robson Valley]

I use pecans as the grooves hold more spices: A mix of pecans, almonds and hazel nuts looks best.

Perheat your oven to 350F, get a sheet pan ready and measure everything.
This is so quick there isn't any time to mess with measuring stuff without burning the nuts.
4+ tbs cooking oil in a deep pot.
When that's heating, add 1-2 tbs curry powder and stir fry.
Add a mix of 2 tsp each mustard seed and cumin seed.
When the mustard seed begins to pop, dump in all the nuts and stir, nonstop.
While that's heating, don't stop stirring and add a few squirts of soya sauce =
that's the glue to stick the curry and seeds to the nuts. Maybe more soya sauce, keep stirring.
Keep your nose out of the pot! Toxic fumes.
Finally, a few shakes of salt.

Spread onto the sheet pan and into the oven for about 8 minutes.
Gotta watch, they burn easily.
Out of the oven, let them cool.
Bet you can't stop at just one.