American Hazelnut

When gathering wild hazelnuts, it is always a race to see who gets to them first.  Deer, wild turkeys, bear and squirrels can strip a grove in a day.  And with this year's lack of rain and therefor lack of food, I think it could go even faster.  I decided since there really wasn't a whole bunch of food for the wild animals this year, I wasn't going to harvest a whole bunch of hazelnuts.  Still, I love that rich nut so much that I had to have at least a few of them this winter when I need a bit of comfort food for those long cold nights.

Here in Wisconsin we have two different kinds of hazelnuts; the beaked hazelnut that is a more northern tree and we are just on the southern edge of.  And the American hazelnut that is actually quite common in our area.  Many of our hedgerows are made up of wild apple trees and American hazelnut bushes.  Which is fine for this witch because I love the hedges and I adore hazelnuts. 

Long before I ever knew these as hazelnuts we called them filberts.  My grandmother, the wife of a dairy farmer, preferred filbert nut milk to cow's milk.  I remember many a late summer day out with her in the hedgerow gathering filberts and learning about all the wild plants and animals that call the hedges home.  Usually we would come back with our arms loaded with all sorts of treasures that would end up in tinctures, or salves or even in the pot for dinner that night.  Living from the hedge was easy at that time of year and I often saw myself as one of Robin Hood's merry folk, the wild men and women who live amongst the trees and played pranks on the "civilized people".  I would be so stuffed with black berries and some sampled filberts that mom would pop open a homemade ginger ale to sooth my stomach when I got home.  Which was an added bonus for the day. :-)

 

Hazelnut leaves

 

Hazelnut bushes are leggy things, growing for the sun before leafing out.  They can be confused with young wild cherry trees until their fruit starts to come out.  And then there is no other tree that looks like this around.  The fruit begins by looking like some exotic flower that never quite opens.  It stays green for most of the time until it ripens and then the skins become a tan color and open up to reveal the nuts inside.  Yes, each fruit can have six or seven nuts in each of them.  Which makes it easy to gather. 

 

Still green hazelnut fruits earlier in the summer

Pinch the whole fruit into your bucket and go for the next one.  If you beat the squirrels, you can gather bucket loads in a very short time.  In fact I would have to say that I find it it be the easiest nut to bring in.  After that though things do get a bit tougher.  Nature seems to make getting the meat from any nut to be a hard task for us humans who don't have proper tooth to chew them open or proper claw to pop them open.  We have to rely on our brains to find the proper tool to help us get to that rich nut meat that is so tantalizingly close.  I have to admit, I have yet to find the "perfect" tool.  I usually make do with a hammer and gentle taps for storage nuts.  Filberts, like most nuts, store better the less processed they are.  I take off the outer husks to make sure there are no bugs, and then store the nut in a sealed container until I need to use them.

If you plan on using them right away though you can roast them, husk and all and then, while they are still warm, rub the husks in a rough towel and they usually come off quite easily.  Once roasted though the nut will only store for a month or so.

Hazelnuts are one of the richest nuts we have growing in our forests.  Mixed with maple syrup in a pie they are to die for, but only in small amounts.  My stomach simply will not let me eat too much of it.

To make my grandmother's favorite, filbert milk, first get the nut meat out of the nuts.  Roast the meat and then rub off the dark skins.  I actually like the dark skins but some people find them to be bitter and it does give an off color to the milk.  Then soak the nut meat in about 3 times the amount of water for eight hours or overnight.  Then dump the whole mass (water and nuts) into the blender and pulverize those nuts.  Basically make them part of the liquid.  Then pour the whole mass again either through a very fine sieve lined with a few layers of cheese cloth or, like we have always done, pour it through a jelly bag.  It takes awhile to get all the rich liquid out of the pulp so a jelly bag is easy to hang and allow to drip.  Also, a jelly bag is fine enough that you can press it to get the last drop of liquid from the pulp without worrying that the pulp will get into your nut milk.

That's it, you have just made filbert nut milk, free milk from the wild. You milked a nut tree!  I drink mine just straight but you can pour this over cereal to give a very rich milky flavor to ordinary grains or use it in your tea or coffee for an out of this world richness.  You can use it in pie fillings to make an even richer pie.  I mean look to see what you would use regular milk for and see if an touch of richness would be nice.  Then reach for the filberts.

This post is getting kinda long so I'll do another post on other recipes you can do with hazelnuts.  This free nut from the hedgerow is one of the best harvests from Nature's garden as long as you can beat the wildlife to it.  Make certain you keep an eye out for the wild men and women of the forest though.  I know they are there because I have been one a few times during my life.