Anyone have insight into what’s wrong with my hazelnuts? They look healthy but the nuts taste TERRIBLE! Every year every single one of them tastes rancid.
I’m at a loss for what to do. They taste this way straight off the tree and after I dry them for a couple weeks.
I don’t know what is causing your taste issue but I’m wondering if the nut for whatever the reason is souring in the shell before they are harvested and possibly before they drop etc. You might try picking about a week or so early and dry them quickly inside. This might not change anything but you could easily test this method out.
I’ll give it a shot. We do live in a very humid area.
Can I still pick them when the leaves are green?
How well does putting hazels in a bucket of water to find blanks work?
pretty good if you dont have holes in them from weevil damage like i did last summer. had to sort them all by hand. treated under the bushes with nematodes. hopefully they got the grubs in the soil this summer. if not ill treat again until they’re gone.
If you have plenty of nuts on the tree I would pick a sample weekly starting about a month from when they normally mature. Might not help but it is worth a test to see.
I’ll take a few every week starting now.
Can I try them fresh off the tree, or do they need to dry first?
they get nuttier tasting once dry but you can eat them fresh.
I would try them both ways. If you try a few fresh and dry you might discover where and when the issue is occurring.
Texas experiment update. I have posted on other hazelnut topics my experiment but in brief it is hot as heck in Texas near DFW and I am trying to find varieties that tolerate intense summer heat (100F) and produce nuts. Note I do not expect to ever get a full tree of nuts, hoping for some nuts on a bunch of trees to make up a good yearly harvest. I have many varieties of differing ages and am going to post my experiment with varieties and heat, and for those trees old enough to produce (but not mature yet) will note as such. This info is to help other crazy people who try to grow these in hot environments like mind.
As far as varieties that take the heat all summer Sommerset, followed by some wild C. americana’s are doing best. Close second group is Yamhill, and The Beast and Dorris. The third group struggles in the first two years then grow more robust includes Raritan, Grand Traverse, Barcelona, Polly O and Theta. The fourth group does not do well in our heat includes Jefferson, Hunterdon, Felix, and the worst was York.
I bought some Oikos trees, note these are not varieties and despite the names, every tree is different. One out of four Precocious trees grows and produces well here with mid size nuts. Select One grows well and produces well with small to mid size nuts. Ecos can’t take the heat. Bought elsewhere was Truxton and the heat killed it. Precocious is a euro american hybrid and Select One is a pure american. As noted above C. americana or euro crosses have done fairly well. Wild C. americana are just for pollination, nuts are tiny the exception is the somewhat selected Select One.
Tonda di Giffoni is in its second year here and so far so good and has flowered already but no nuts. It has not yet been through a very high heat TX summer so jury is still out.
Of the trees that are mature Precocious, Yamhill and Select One have produced well (for Texas). Barcelona produces only a few nuts and sometimes none. Jefferson has produced no flowers or tassels and is 7ft tall, this one is not working, does poorly in heat. The Beast is growing very well and is now 7 ft tall but no flowers or tassels yet.
Not quite mature but starting to flower but no nuts yet Dorris, Grand Traverse, Tonda di Giffoni, and Theta. Raritan is of similar age and size but no flowers or tassels yet. Sommerset is a year younger so despite its good growth it is too young probably.
Tassels are an issue in Texas, on the Euro varieties from OSU strong Texas winds blow them off with the exception of Yamhill. C. americana tassels are more strongly attached to the trees and don’t get blown off as much hence using them for pollination. High Texas heat around 110F will kill many tassels except Yamhill and some with C. americana genetics.
Barcelona is a fully mature tree and it flowers sparsely in good years, not at all in others.
Was hoping to have new information on nut production this year but the tassels almost all disappeared by flowering time. Was not wind or heat, I believe it was a heavy infestation of grasshoppers we had last summer, I think they ate them. Grasshoppers were exceptionally bad last summer. No big infestations this year, and no high heat this summer (for Texas I mean, no higher than 100F, mostly high 90’s). So hopefully will have news to report next season as many of these varieties are maturing and more are starting to flower. Yamhill is still the winner as far as selected varieties go. Fingers crossed on Dorris, Sommerset, Grand Traverse and Tonda di Giffoni. I have ripped out some Jeffersons and put in more Yamhills. Will keep Felix for another season or two in the hope that the remaining Jeffersons do something, anything. Put in more Dorris based on heat tolerance and getting a few flowers so far. That is the news from Texas.
For those posting progress could you please mention your state, thanks.
@Darby64
Thanks for the update. It gets hot in Central Alabama but I think your temps go about 10-15 degrees higher. I surmise that any hazels that work well for you would probably do well at my place. I have some new varieties grafted in and I don’t know how they will do yet (Dorris, Mcdonald, Eta). The 2 varieties that consistently produce tassels/Catkins and appear to have viable pollen are Yamhill and a seedling American. The nuts on the American are so small they would be worthless to me but the wildlife probably would like them. These 2 shed their pollen early so I don’t know if the pollen will overlap the bloom stage of my other varieties. This upcoming grafting season my current plans are to graft in more limbs of Yamhill for edible nuts and more of the American for pollen. Thanks again for the updates.
Being the first year of any nuts I hadn’t thought to check on things for way too long - Most of my nuts had already dropped and were devoured by rabbits but I managed to scavenge enough to try my hand at preparing them. How long does everyone let them dry before roasting?
Congratulations!!!
Just got me my first hazelnut. Went with winkler bush hazelnut since i like to go native when i can. Anyone have experience with it? Allegedly its more self fertile than usual.
mine should be dropping shortly as well.
You can roast them right away after harvesting and they’ll get melty and soft inside. The longer you dry them the firmer / crunchier they’ll be. I shell mine, then give them 10-12 minutes at 350°F. Either way only roast what you intend to eat within a few days.
Thanks! Still curious about how long to dry them, is this a weeks-long drying or more of a days-long?
I’m only on my second year of harvesting, so I haven’t had enough to store long enough to find out, haha. I’ve read that it’s ideal to dry them in a dehydrator or some such thing in the shell for 2-3 days at ~100°F, then refrigerate or freeze, but I’ve been keeping mine in a bowl on the kitchen table and the ones I picked 10 days ago still seem perfect. It’s been extraordinarily dry here though.
Cracked and roasted my Hazels this past weekend and I really liked them! I would roast them longer next time (did the recommended 10 min @ 350 that seems to be the standard).
For those of us who get a lot of Hazels, how are you cracking them? I can see where the labor involved becomes an issue
i bought a nut cracker off of amazon. its shaped like a narrow cone with a handle out the side. it can crack from walnuts to hazels and does it well without smashing them. think its made in sweden or norway. was about $30 2 years ago. i can crack for a hour and not get too tired. i just switch hands when i do. someone on here brought it to my attention.
