26 February 2010

Homegrown Hazelnuts




I've been wanting to post pictures and a little bit of information on my hazelnuts for a few months now. There are lots of hazelnut tree/shrubs all over the place---in backyards, in parking lots, along the side of the road. Harvest time is around October. I managed to get my hands on a few different varieties that were grown locally. The round and fat ones are really nice when they are rather freshly picked and haven't dried out yet. The longer ones are stupendous when they are dried out and then roasted. I tend to eat these just a few at a time. Once, I shelled a pound of hazelnuts so I could roast them. It took me an hour to do the shelling with my little sad nut cracker. The nuts roasted up beautifully! And we ate them in 14 minutes. I never roasted up a bunch again because I think I gave myself carpal tunnel syndrome ;-)



Round-fat ones:




These are the longer drop-shaped ones. Lovely!