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can anyone help i have a hazelnut tree in my garden aand i dont know how to tellwhen thier ready for picking and i want some before the pesky squirrels nick them all again

on a second note when ive picked them alll what do i do with them do i need to roast the before eating and other than eating as nuts any ideas what to do with them

September is the time for hazels but squirrels usually don't wait until they are ready.
Just eat them as they are, or use them in cooking ... hazelnut cookies are very nice, or chop them up for a nut roast, or grind them to a paste for a spread, or .................

How weird I was just about to ask the same question!I have loads of hazelnuts this year but although fewer last year the squirrels had them all.How do you know when they are ready do they fall?I thought you had to dry them a bit like walnuts before use?Any suggestions should we be shooting the squirrels??

I've only ever had one bumper crop years ago at a different house and the nuts just fell off when they were ready. They had turned brown by this stage and were ready to eat. Walnuts don't need drying and can be eaten as soon as they have dropped off the tree though they are usually left to dry in terms of drying the shell before storing so they don't go mouldy.

In this house we have lots of hazels but hardly ever have any nuts and those that there are get nicked by the squirrels long before they are ripe.

clare wrote:How weird I was just about to ask the same question!I have loads of hazelnuts this year but although fewer last year the squirrels had them all.How do you know when they are ready do they fall?I thought you had to dry them a bit like walnuts before use?Any suggestions should we be shooting the squirrels??

No need to dry them and anyway they will "dry" themselves if left alone.
All the nuts that grow around here, hazels, walnuts, almonds, chestnuts etc can be eaten straight from the tree and taste totally different to the ones that are dry and sold in shops.
They all taste wonderfully creamy and fresh by comparison, the only downside being that you will probably have to peel an inner skin on them, except hazels.
I'm rather lucky as I have no squirrels here ... not enough trees.

Oooh you have almonds! I was always under the impression that they grew in warmer climates but then I've never really looked up much on the subject. That's one thing I've never grown or even seen growing! I'm not desperately keen on them but there are loads of recipes that use ground almonds instead of flour and it costs a ruddy fortune!

Hmmm maybe I should get a tree!

Yes, I have an almond tree but I don't often get many nuts from it as we always seem to have gales when it's in flower and I planted it in the wrong place.
My in-laws have a tree in Worcestershire and it gets so loaded with nuts every year that whole branches break off due to the weight.
My tree is from a nut off that tree.

Shouldn't be any problem at all in Brittany as a farmer I know in Finisterre has a almond trees and apricot trees around a field.

hazelnuts tend to go brownish and will roll out of the husk thing if you try them.
I dry roast them in the oven then use them in cookies... fan-blummin-tastic!

you can crack open the white ones and use them in cooking etc.. i seem to remember Hugh F-W doing this - but i think its a waste.

I bet you could make a lovely recipe for hazelnut & squirrel burgers

Odsox wrote:September is the time for hazels but squirrels usually don't wait until they are ready.
Just eat them as they are, or use them in cooking ... hazelnut cookies are very nice, or chop them up for a nut roast, or grind them to a paste for a spread, or .................

I've just realise that they are the nuts I found in the wood near our village - they looked very pale green, almost white. Are they actually usable in cooking right now, or do they need to ripen a little more? Is this a human vs squirrel - who blinks first - type of thing?

Just for interest's sake hazel nuts will keep longer and are much more digestible with more accessible nutrients after having been roasted.

I forgot to ask if they are brown when ready??Can you ripen off the tree as some of the green ones have fallen already.

Good Morning All,

Yesterday when mooching about a field at the back of the house, I found 3 hazel nut trees all full of nuts. They are white / pale green at the moment.

Do I pick them now or wait till they go brown?

Do they dry at room temp or do I shove them in a cool oven?

I don't want to waste them but I've really no clue what to do with them

According to Countryfile last night, and to answer some questions which I think might have been posed on another thread:-

Cobnuts are a variety of hazelnut, as are filberts. The cobnuts seem to form in clusters of at least 5 nuts all together.

Hazels can be eaten now whilst white/green but do not store for very long when picked in this stage of their development.

For long term storing nuts leave them on the tree until they go brown and drop.

They showed a hazelnut orchard with more than 40 different varieties of nuts!

They didn't mention squirrels though!!!

Ahhh, lovely I was just thinking of asking about hazelnut recipies! I always just make pesto.

I read in my little gem book of free food that early hazelnuts are perfectly edible, just not as tastey which I can agree with given I have not yet succumbed in spite of scoffing handfulls whilst harvesting.