Hazelnuts

[GGTBod]

Plenty kicking around on the urban industrial estates of newcastle and barely a squirrel to be seen, i judge that by the lack of harvesting debris on the floor they normally create

I grabbed this little bag whilst taking a break on my bike ride, if i'd have grabbed more but had no space left on my backpack

 

[Robson Valley]

GGTBod: do you run into any foraging restrictions? Like "hand-to-mouth" is OK but you can't take 5 lbs home?
Your 'sample' looks so edible.

 

[GGTBod]

It is more the unwritten foraging code, although you can't legally pick wild nuts for commercial purposes here, for your own use it's all good but we gotta think of the little critters who depend on these foods so it's good not to strip the trees, you'd easy get away with 5lbs no problems as long as it wasn't all from the same bush, the place i go there is about 50 individual copiced bushes over about a 1 mile square

 

[Robson Valley]

Thanks. Having a big, wild place does help to spread the harvest.
We have some wild hazelnut, Corylus cornuta, but the microscopic prickles have always put me off. Nut meats maybe 1/2" at most.

I visit the outskirts of a city for berry picking. Saskatoons/Service berries = Amelanchier alnifolia I do strip the bushes.
There's so much of it and I get the really tall (10-15') ones by bending them over. Move 10 yards and strip another.
I see some loaded patches that never get picked and the birds & squirrels can't possibly eat it all.
I don't know about selling the result. Never looked into it. I make fruit pies so going into each winter with 20+lbs is nice to have.

 

[GGTBod]

I can safely say i could not be trusted around a big pile of fruit pies

 

[Robson Valley]

Saskatoon berries are large pea-sized, deep purple and juicy when ripe. Borne from singles to clusters of 6-8. Some what of a deep apple taste.
I can only trust myself to make 6 pies at a time = still just one mess to clean up. I make pies to make wilded foods that really are worth eating.

South of me in the Okanagan valley and more than a century ago, the Gelatly family set about in a deliberate breeding program for both walnuts and hazelnuts.
In this day and time, the quality is excellent. However, I cannot uncover what becomes of the annual crops. Hmmmmm.

 

[Janne]

My Assistant (a Canadian gal) brought me a jar of Saskatoon berry jam. I had never tasted those berries.
Interesting taste a hint of Blueberries. But lots and lots of fairly large seeds!

 

[Robson Valley]

If the jam was from Last Mountain Berry farms, they add some Saskatoon berry juice concentrate to "help" crops with mild taste.
I do the same with my grapes for jelly.
The berry is in fact a "pome" with exactly the same internal fruit anatomy as an apple.
Sadly, the fleshy part didn't keep up with the seeds!

Expect to pick grapes end of this month. Told the pickers to sort it out amongst themselves as to who takes how much.
Maybe 25lbs per vine, hard to tell.

 

[Robson Valley]

Back to Hazel Nuts. Harvest here in BC is October in the Fraser Valley, upstream from Vancouver, BC.
Turns out there's a tree-killer of a blight fungus which has spread west across the entire country.
Some new resistant tree stock coming up from the States but serious downturn now in production.

I don't know if our little wild shrubby hazel nut trees/bushes are affected. At least they are frost hardy
enough to grow in my district, usually along river courses.

 

[Trotsky]

I went out this morning with a friend, less than a mile from my house and probably a hundred yards from Lidl, down by the river and found loads of hazelnuts. Less than half an hour out of the house and I came home with just over 1 ½ lb of fresh hazelnuts. There are still loads more to go at down there and no sign at all that they're being eaten by any wildlife as you can see last year's nuts rotting on the ground. I think it's too busy being so close to town, so no squirrels to strip the trees before I get a chance.


I'm amazed no one else has been down there for them, we were getting some very funny looks from some dog walkers who must think hazelnuts naturally come in bags in supermarkets.

 

[Drain Bamaged]

There used to be a lot more Hazel trees a bit further down the towpath past the point and under or around the motorway bridge I don't know if they are still there....once upon a time they used to be still available really late on when the winter league matches were being fished on the Springs, it always surprised me that no one else seemed to bother with them.

D.B.

 

[northumbriman]

Its great to hear you can gather the hazels still green. My experience though is that by the time they are a reasonable size the damn squirrels have beaten me to it. I will have to check out the various industrial and business parks of Newcastle though .... might be able to beat GGTBod to them even if I cant beat the squirrels....

 

[jmagee]

It's the bloody grey squirrels eating them before they're ready I think

Sent from my ONEPLUS A3003 using Tapatalk

 

[Drain Bamaged]

Eat more Grey Squirrels.......

D.B.

 

[northumbriman]

Eat more Grey Squirrels.......

D.B.

I have eaten them but no matter how many you get there always seems to be another too steal the hazels.:AR15firin

 

[Robson Valley]

I've yet to have the opportunity but hazelnut fed squirrels sound like a real suppertime treat. Pass the plum sauce, please.

 

[Rowantk]

anyone ever had problems with the shells having no nuts in? I picked hundreds last year only to find nuts in about 1/3 of them

 

[Insel Affen]

Yes I have. I think sometimes it something which has burrowed in, you can often spot the holes. Other times I think it's just bad luck or shrivelled nuts! (Ooh er missus!)