Physical Description
Dark brown, round nuts
Colors: Dark brown shell and skin. White flesh
Tasting Notes
Flavors: Sweet
Mouthfeel: Tender, Milky
Food complements: Chocolate, John dory, Dried fruit
Beverage complements: Tea, Coffee
Substitutes: Beechnuts, Cashews, Macadamia nuts, Almonds, Walnuts
Selecting and Buying
Seasonality: january, february, march, april, may, june, july, august, september, opctober, november, december
Peak: august, september, opctober
Choosing: Look for hazelnuts that have smooth, glossy shells. Good hazelnuts do not rattle when shaken, because this means it still retains some of it's moisture.
Procuring: Hazel nuts are harvested annually in mid autumn. As autumn comes to a close, the trees drop their nuts and leaves. Most commercial growers wait for the nuts to drop on their own, rather than use equipment to shake them from the tree.
There are three primary pieces of equipment used in commercial harvesting; the sweeper, the harvester, and the forklift. The sweeper centralizes the material into rows, the harvester lifts and separates the nuts from the debris, and the forklift hauls the nuts away for processing
Preparation and Use
Hazelnuts can be opened using a nut cracker. You can bake the nuts on medium heat for 10 minutes or until the skin begins to split. Then rub on the skins with a clean towel to remove the bitter skins.The kernel of the seed is edible and used raw or roasted, or ground into a paste. Hazelnuts are also used for livestock feed, as are chestnuts and acorns. The seed has a thin, dark brown skin and can sometimes be removed before cooking.
Conserving and Storing
Hazelnuts can be stored for 2-3 months is a cool dry place
Social/Political
Common Hazel is cultivated for its nuts in commercial orchards in Europe, Turkey, Iran and Caucasus. The name "hazelnut" applies to the nuts of any of the species of the genus Corylus. This hazelnut, the kernel of the seed, is edible and used raw or roasted, or ground into a paste. The seed has a thin, dark brown skin which has a bitter flavour and is sometimes removed before cooking. The top producer of hazelnuts, by a large margin, is Turkey, specifically the Ordu Province. Turkish hazelnut production of 625,000 tonnes accounts for approximately 75% of worldwide production
History: Most hazelnuts grown in the United States come from Oregon. The Holmquist family, in Lynden, WA (Holmquist Hazelnut Orchards), grows a more natural hazelnut than the ones everyone is familiar with. They are more oblong in shape as opposed to round. They are really great tasting...sweeter, nuttier. They sell their nuts, in many different forms and seasoned flavors (as well as their cracked shells for garden walkways, etc), at the Redmond Saturday Market and several other farmers markets in the Seattle area.
