When to pick hazelnuts

[ButternutSquash]

At the end of a run this evening, I noticed a hazelnut tree near my house. I cracked open a nut, and the inside was much bigger than nuts you buy. It was superb, very tasty. Are they ready now? It seems rather early. But I don't want the tree rats to get them!

I also found a plum tree nearby!

[mothhawk]

The squirrels have already had the lot off the trees around where I live. I would gather them now. There's nothing as tasty as a fresh nut straight off the tree! Leave it till next week, and they'll be gone.

[scarey55]

Interestingly, I picked and ate a load today. They had started to go brown (well, egg shell colour really) and they were delicious, really tasty and creamy - just remembered, I still have some in my pocket so thank you for reminding me

[marchogaeth]

I was in Morrisons yesterday and they had a whole section of cob nuts, it was surrounded by staff who were all confused as to what they were. I helped. When I looked though, they were all really green. Would they turn brown or have they been picked too soon?

[scarey55]

Some of the ones I had yesterday were still green, I try and leave them util they pop out of their "cups" but sometimes I can't wait and they are still delicious.

Just found this and it doesn't seem to matter if they are brown or not

[Nannysally99]

I love the green ones , taxi to Morrissons me thinks

[Farmer_Gyles]

i've found loads of hazelnut trees round here - obvious by the shells on the floor - all the nuts gone from the trees though ....

[Mark_Riga]

We are plagued by squirrels but the hazels do have some nuts on at the moment.
a Red filbert seems to have nuts on that are just colouring brown and taste a bit nutty.
a Kentish cob has more immature nuts but they are quite crunchy.
a wild hazel tree in the hedgerow has nuts developing but very immature .

If I pick some now, how long are the Red filbert likely to store for do you think or would they need eating when picked?
Also the Kentish Cob? The wild ones are not worth picking just yet.
The first pic is the red prior to shelling and the secontdhas the shelled nuts and also the green Kentish nuts as well. I was thinking of harvesting most of the red ones but would like to know if they would keep and how to store. The Kentish nuts look similar when shelled but taste less nutty.

[muckdiva]

The ones I’ve gathered from the floor green or just turning brown look great but are all empty -no kernel to be seen?

[ameno]

The ones I’ve gathered from the floor green or just turning brown look great but are all empty -no kernel to be seen?

That's why they're on the ground. The bad ones are shed early.

[Mark_Riga]

Well I picked some of the red ones on the 20th August. These seemed to be ripening well so picked the rest on the 23/8.
Squirrels still not about so picked some of the kentish cob today to see how they fare. The couple of kentish I picked on the 20th August seem to be shrivelling up a bit but today the shells look faintly brown and this sunshine must be helping.

[muckdiva]

That's why they're on the ground. The bad ones are shed early.

Lol, thank you...obvious when you think about it. The squirrel has arrived as there are loads of cracked shells on the floor now so will have to get in and pick some off the tree.

[Mark_Riga]

The red filbert ones seem to be good. It hasn't been particularly sunny this year so I would think the red filbert is a good choice to have a chance of beating the squirrels to good nuts. 400g of nuts in the box that have fallen out of their husks with about twice as much again to come.

Too early yet to say if the kentish cobs will form proper nuts, they are still very green but hopefully will dry slowly and turn brown also.



I saw a squirrel snooping round our garden yesterday morning. Chased it off but it will be back.

[Mark_Riga]

Well if you see any hazels of any sort you can pick them now. The red nuts are small, taste nutty and just had some very nice hazel nut biscuits. The kentish ones are drying ok, majority picked 29/08. some at the top of the tree had been eaten. Wild hazel nuts from the hedgerow are ripe already and I picked a bag of those as well. They seem the biggest of the 3 nd the nuts come out of the husks very easily. I suspect that when I go back to check if there are any more, there won't be.

[Can the Man]

I just got me a hazelnut bush from the garden centre, will plant it next to the garden fence at the end of the garden.