hazlenut picking

[woodwalker]

hi
just a quick(ish) question, there are millions of hazlenut trees in a local wood and obviously by now there are millions of hazlenuts to accompany them. However, at what stage in their growth/colour should I pick them?

Equally, although food for free provides one recipe for hazlenuts, does any know of any other good ones.

Thanks,

woodwalker

 

[mal]

Hi should be ready around mid september

 

[kaoss]

I usually pick them when they are just turning brown and keep them about a month to dry.
Then eat them all year till next years harvest

 

[Toddy]

If you take any just now (well round here anyway) they're just soft and milky and won't keep. Nice for a snack though. It's been so dry this year that some of them are kind of withered inside

Cheers,
Toddy

 

[stuart f]

When they are ready they slip out of their husks quite easily,just wiggle them and if the nut moves about in the husk then you can take it they are ready for collecting. Me and my mate when we were kids used to pick hundreds of hazelnuts then scoff the lot. You just can't beat the taste of fresh picked hazels.

 

[woodwalker]

thanks a lot guys :You_Rock_

woodwalker

 

[Fenlander]

Be aware! The trees here WERE loaded with nuts, but over the last two weeks the local wildlife has emptied them Still, they need them more than I do

 

[locum76]

got a bumper load of hazels on some cultivar trees in a hedge at my work. i'm gonna net them to keep the squiggles off and then gorge myself when they are ready. honestly, there is thousands. ive never seen anything like it in scotland before.

it must be the heat, it seems all the nutting trees are heavily loaded this year.

 

[Thrap]

I had two hazelnut-based events that have left me scarred. The first was in Germany, when I was in the army. The unit I was with shared a base with a Canadian Regiment. We had a lovely time. The camp was covered with fruit bushes and hazels (plus other nuts), due to it's having been an 3rd Reich Army camp. Those guys liked to be self sufficient. Late summer and autumn there was terrific. Turned me on to wild food, anyway.
Time came when the Canadians went home, and a British Armoured Brigade moved in. Their Brigadier insisted on all the trees on the camp being cut down. Did not leave a sodding twig. Claimed that it would give an attacking enemy cover and we would have a clear field of fire. (Never mind about our cover or a putative enemies field of fire, these concepts probably never got covered in Brigadier school!) And thus ended my nutting days.

My second horror story comes about 20 years later in Cumbria, where I worked as a nurse. I spent a whole summer watching a five or so mile stretch of hazel hedge develop on a back road short cut. Plenty of nuts developing and damn my mouth was watering. Come September when I went back for them... Some goon had gone down both sides of the lane with a flail cutter. The leaves and twigs were still scattered on the lane. AAAAARRRRGGGGHHHH!!!

 

[ilan]

Picked up a dozen or so yesterday and most were empty just a shrivelled up shell in side ? be some hungay squirells this year then ? ilan

 

[sanslr109]

most of the nuts are droppoing off without being ready on the trees where i work

 

[Kepis]

most of the nuts are droppoing off without being ready on the trees where i work

Same round here, they all seem to be dropping early

 

[GearGuru]

Starting to drop here too - normally don't drop til mid September!

 

[jasons]

I get my nuts from tescos

 

[British Red]

Gents,

Are they dropping in clusters - with the husks on? If so they aren't dropping - thats squirrel sign (still - you can eat them too)

Red

 

[Ditch Monkey]

I just read that it is best to leave the nuts until late September to pick, that way they are good and ripe and they won't have all been got by the squirells and jays (I guess the book was written when there were one or two more jays about).

Having said that, there is a grocer in the local town that is selling them for £2.80 a pound right now!

Hmmm, I might just enter that 100 litre rucksack and head to the woods.

 

[Klenchblaize]

Be aware! The trees here WERE loaded with nuts, but over the last two weeks the local wildlife has emptied them Still, they need them more than I do

Spot on observation!

The down platform at Lenham Station was littered with the debris from hazelnut-munching fauna when my train drew in on Monday morning. This is also a bumper year for the Sloe and *Bullace.

*Note: For those who are unsure the Bullace differs from the Sloe in having brown bark, the branches straight and only a few of them ending in spines, the leaves larger, broader, more coarsely toothed, and downy on the underside. The flowers, too, have broader petals, and the fruit – which may be black or yellow – droops, and is about three-quarters of an inch in diameter.

Cheers

 

[KevB]

Got a couple of Bullace in the garden. Not quite ready yet. Had a few the other day but they need a bit more sun. When they do ripen you need to be quick to gather them, they seem to drop almost as soon as they are ready. They'll darken off quite quickly when theyr're near ripe. Very sweet though !