Hazelnuts

Every year at harvest time, it's a battle against the critters to bring in some of our favourite crops.  In the nearly 16 years we've been tending a grapevine that produces wonderful little seedless grapes, we've only managed to beat the raccoons twice.  It seems that a day or two before I judge the grapes are ready for picking, I'll head out in the morning ready to pick and find - none.

It's much the same with the hazelnuts, although I've had better luck there.  It's easiest to just let the nuts fall and gather them from the ground.  This doesn't work here.  In the past, I was squeezing the ripening nuts from their husks and getting most of the harvest.  I don't mind losing a nut or two to our little native red squirrels as they're not hugely greedy.  Last year, however, I got nothing.   This greedy predator is the raccoon.  They can also do a lot of damage as they break the more slender branches as they strip the bushes.

This morning I went out to see how the hazelnuts are coming along and discovered several bunches on the ground, some with nuts still in and others empty.  Time to pick!

Hazelnut hiding under a branch

The nuts aren't that easy to see.  Encased in husks that are the same colour as the leaves, you can only see them from below.  Branches must be lifted up and the tops of the bushes have to be pulled down to get at the nuts.  We pulled them off, husks and all.

2014 harvest

We have four bushes.  One produces heavily, another is a lot bigger, produces very few nuts and the other two are young and not in production yet.  They have Perigord truffle spores inoculated in their roots!  I hesitate to take out the unproductive bush because perhaps you need a couple of varieties for pollination.  From mainly the one bush, we harvested a basket of nuts in their husks.  There are probably a few nuts still in the bush, but the squirrels are welcome to them.

Hazelnuts drying on a tray

We spread the nuts on a tray in the potting shed to dry.  Some of the nuts are ripe already and have fallen from the husks.  Hopefully the little mouse who helped himself to my corn seeds has moved to more a productive location and will leave the hazelnuts alone!