Harvest and dry hazelnuts

Harvest hazelnuts properly

The fruits begin to ripen in early August. The nuts are surrounded by green, cup-shaped leaves. The core is still soft and light, it tastes very mild.

The actual harvest time begins at the end of September. The core is now covered with a brown membrane. It tastes aromatic and is crunchy. As with the walnut tree, the surest sign that the nuts are ripe is when they fall to the ground without the leaf cup.

You can recognize ripe nuts by the fact that the outer shell falls off slightly from the nut core when cracked. In the case of unripe nuts, the shell is still very firmly attached to the core. This is no different with the walnut either.

Since the nuts are not damaged when they fall, there is no need to remove the hazelnuts shrub to pick. Picking up is more convenient for you and gentler on the plant. Hazel trees in particular can hardly be harvested in any other way, as the nuts grow at a lofty height.

Use unripe fruits

Unripe walnuts and hazelnuts are not poisonous and have a lovely aroma. You can tell whether the nut is ripe by the hardness of the shells and the thin brown skin that covers the nut core. With unripe nuts, both of these do not yet appear or only appear very tenderly and transparently.

From August onwards it is worthwhile to pick the unripe nuts from the tree. Before this point, the core is too tiny and has no flavor. But from midsummer the soft nuts are perfect for making nut liqueur out of them. Pierce the shell several times with a needle and place 200 grams of nuts along with the same amount of rock candy and a vanilla pod in half a liter of clear schnapps.

If larger quantities of unripe nuts have fallen from the tree, you can let them ripen. Put the fruit in a covered bucket, as high humidity is required for ripening. Check the stock carefully, as mold often forms.

Dry the traditional way

You do not have to laboriously dry the ripe brown hazelnuts. Suffice it to loosely in networks of potatoes or Onions packaged to hang in an airy place.

Fruit trays lined with newspaper are also excellent. Place the nuts one by one and turn them every other day. You need a dry, warm room so that the harvest does not go moldy.

After four to six weeks, your nuts will be dry. Shake one of these. You must hear the core rattle in the shell. This is a sign that the peel has detached itself from the core and that the harvest is sufficiently dry.

Save the nuts with their shells in a basket or fruit crate. You can now lay several layers on top of each other. They last nine months without any problems, without going rancid or going moldy.

Store peeled nuts

If you don't have space to dry the nuts as described, or if you want to store part of the harvest for longer, crack the nuts.

Spread the kernels in a dehydrator or on a tray in the oven. Dry them at a maximum of 100 degrees for 24 hours. The hazelnuts prepared in this way are suitable for freezing. They will keep in the chest for about a year.

Another option is to awaken the kernels. Put this in a mason jar and close it with the rubber, the corresponding lid and the clamp. Briefly heat to 130 degrees so that a vacuum is created inside.

Tip: Before freezing or preserving the nuts, briefly toast them in a pan without fat to intensify the nut aroma.

Overview of storing nuts

method	description	storage time
Store whole nuts	dry in nets or in individual layers in trays store in a basket or in crates	9 months
Freeze cracked nuts	crack nuts Dry in the dehydrator or oven for 24 hours at 50-100 degrees Freeze packed in cans or bags	12 months
Preserve cracked nuts	crack nuts Dry in the dehydrator or oven for 24 hours at 50-100 degrees Fill into jars and briefly heat to 130 degrees	12 months
Toast the nuts	after drying, roast in the pan without fat Preserve or freeze	12 months

Harvesting and drying hazelnuts is easy, and if you store the nuts properly, you will have some of them year round.