The nuts of both species of hazelnuts typically are ready for picking locally in late August or early September.
Your targets will look like these:
American Hazelnut
Beaked Hazelnut
Each is ripe when the shell has turned to a brown color, which occurs before the outer husk turns brown. If you wait to pick them when the husk has turned brown, you will likely not find any – resident critters (mostly chipmunks and red squirrels) will have harvested them before you! However, do not pick any nut if its shell is green, cream or whitish in color – it is simply not yet ripe.
When picking them, I recommend wearing leather gloves because of the tiny sticky hairs on the husks. If you don’t, your fingertips can become quite painful to the touch – it may feel like you’ve been handling fiberglass insulation.
Photo Credit: http://arcadianabe.blogspot.com/2012/09/the-midwest-wild-harvest-festival.html
Let your harvest air dry for several days. Doing do should enable you to peel the husk off of each nut more easily. After you remove the outer husk, I suggest that you rinse the nuts (still in shell) with water. Then, let your husked harvest air dry for at least a couple of weeks before cracking open – doing so will help ensure the nut separates easily from the shell when you crack them open.
I find use of this type of nutcracker works best –
View nutrition information regarding hazelnuts. Unfortunately, some people have an allergic reaction when eating hazelnuts.
For all of us who can enjoy these tasty nuts, please view these recipes for ideas and inspirations of how to enjoy them.
For those of you interested in perhaps growing your own hazelnut shrubs, look to these planting guides for more information –
Happy trails!
