One of the more amusing things about foraging is that you can covet a certain plant for years and years, but never find it. Then, when you finally do, you start to see it everywhere. This was the year I cracked the code on how to harvest hazelnuts, Corylus cornuta, in the wild. What makes harvesting wild hazels so hard? Glad you asked. I’ll tell you.
First, you don’t harvest hazelnuts in traditional nut season (read: autumn). Nope, hazelnuts come ripe in high summer here in California, or late summer in most other places. If you wait until late September, when most other nuts are ripening, you’re too late. I pick most of my hazels at the end of July and in early August.
Which brings me to the second problem. Finding hazel trees. Lesson One: Hazelnuts don’t grow on trees. They grow on shrubs. Rarely will a hazel grow past 15 feet high, and eight feet or less is pretty much the rule here. So you don’t want to look up to spot hazels.
(Keep in mind I am writing here solely about the beaked hazelnut, not the American hazelnut, which does not grow in California.)
In fact, you need to look down, or rather under. Hazels hide their nuts underneath their leaves, so harvesting them is a matter of moving around the branches and spotting the funny-looking beaky sheaths that enclose them.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. First you need to know where you might find beaked hazelnuts. In California, you will find hazelnuts only in Northern and Central California, on the coast, the Sierra Nevada or in the Sisykous. Beaked hazelnuts also can be found in western Washington and Oregon, in much of Canada, Minnesota, Wisconsin, northern Michigan, New York, all of New England and pretty much the entire Appalachian Mountain Range.
Now you need to identify the plant.
We’ve established that it’s a shrub. Hazels like to live kinda-sorta near moisture, but not right on riverbanks. I tend to see them near little streams and on roadsides. They also grow close to the shoreline on the Pacific Coast. They don’t look like much. They have a pretty typical leaf pattern, but look for the toothed edges and the fact that hazel leaves are fuzzy. The leaves also alternate like you see in the picture.
You may also see the male flowers, called catkins, on the plant as well. Incidentally, grouse and quail love to eat these.
Start scoping out for unripe nuts around Independence Day. Start checking them toward the end of July and into August. You are looking for the nut sheath, called an involucre, to be mostly still green but with patches of color, ranging from rosy red to brown. Nothing else looks like a hazelnut, so there are no poisonous lookalikes to worry about.
Typically beaked hazels set single nuts, but doubles are pretty common. I’ve found quite a few triples and a few quadruples. My friend Sam Thayer says he’s found up to nine nuts in one cluster! Pick the clusters by twisting them off. Don’t break the twigs.
Now I ought to tell you that the involucres of beaked hazelnuts are covered in little fuzzy spines. They are not as bad as the hated glochids of prickly pears, but if you have soft hands you may want to wear gloves. I don’t, and yes, my hands bother me for a few minutes after I am done picking, but it goes away quickly.
Once you get home with your hazelnuts, you need to let the involucres dry out. I put the nuts in a big hotel pan in my garage to dry. They key here is to spread the nuts out in a thin layer — I’d say no more than two nuts deep. If you stack them too deep the ones on the bottom won’t dry as well, and if you live in a place where it isn’t arid, as it is here in NorCal, they could rot on you.
I left mine to dry for a couple weeks. This gives any nuts I might have  picked too early a chance to ripen. Picking some nuts that are unripe is an occupational hazard, but if you wait until at least the end of July to pick (in California) you should be OK. You’ll know if the nut was unripe when it comes time to husk them: The husk sticks to the top of the nut.
Does this mean you need to toss the nut? Nope. But eat those hazelnuts first, as they will not store as long.
To husk the nuts, I just tear off the involucre with my hands. The hazelnut should roll right out. Yes, you will get the little pines all over your hands. Deal. Or wear gloves. There is no other good way to husk them in a dry climate. Sam, however, lives in Wisconsin. His technique will work if you live in a wet place: He buries his hazelnuts in mud for a month. When he digs them up again, the involucres are all black and rotted, but the nuts are just fine.
Keep in mind that wild hazelnuts aren’t as large as the domesticated filberts you buy in the store.
Once they’ve been husked, hazelnuts last for a long, long time in the shell. I’ve eaten 18-month-old nuts that tasted fine. When you are ready to eat them, just crack and eat. Or if you want to roast them, crack and lay the nuts in a single layer on a baking sheet and bake at 275°F. for 15 to 20 minutes. Don’t let them scorch, so watch them after 10 minutes or so. If you want to remove their skins, wrap warm hazelnuts in a kitchen towel and let them sit for 10 minutes. Rub off the skins in the towel.
We just moved from Northern Cali to the Willamette valley. We live on a stream and river . I didn’t know what these strange wrapped nuts were until I opening the wrapping and found your site ! What a wonderful surprise ! The tree/shrub I found it on was a cluster of small long branches 10’-15’ high, next to our creek . We were trimming it back from our garden fence thinking it was the local brush . When I found the nuts, I wanted to cry ! Hopefully we didn’t trim it too much . Now that I know we have them , I can’t wait to look for more on our property . Thank you for the info ..
The trees in South Seattle don’t have nuts….why?
Sylvia: Chances are they do, and you’re missing them because they can be hard to spot. They are under the leaves. Also, look for them in early August.
I’ve been looking for these for about 15 years. I finally found a bush of them today and then I found them everywhere I looked. I was on a trail that I’ve been walking on for about 15 years! I’ve never seen them before. I picked a whole lunch bag full and will go back for some more.
Thanks for the information about collecting and storing and roasting. I live north of Lake Superior about 1 hour into the bush and I harvested some husks that were mostly green to yellow and some with brown. I tried to husk a few, no problem. Can’t wait until I can husk and eat these.
I also live in Wisconsin, thanks for the great article writing & teaching the correct way to harvest Hazelnut. My wild bushes are ripening now, i forge alot of yummy things nature gives us, what a great gift from Mother Nature.
Thank you! After years of bringing home and planting a single hazelnut from each fall hike on which I found them, I have California hazels all over my back yard, and this year they are finally producing nuts—lots of them! This was just the info I needed. Hoping the squirrels don’t nab them while I’m waiting for the end of July! :O
There is a much much better way to remove the husks. You get some sort of tough bag, burlap or a dog food bag or even a contractor trash bag. Make sure the husks are sufficiently dried, I put mine in the back of a car for a few days, then you put them in the bag and walk on them on a concrete floor with shoes. They pop out if the husks for the most part.
I just picked some for the first time. saw them last year but did not know what they were. Have been drying them in the sun and taking them in at night for a while. Rained a few days so kept them inside. Covered them with towels so the wild life mice, etc would not get to them. I think they will be ready soon.
When can you harvest in northern illinois/southern wisconsin the grey squirrels always beat me to them.
Thanks
Dale: Any time now, I’d think.
Thanks for this report. Very well done and helpful.
We live in the U.P. Michigan same zone as WI so when does your friend from WI harvest the nuts. Also can the nuts be dried in a hydrator; at what temp and how long? Or I would like to know more on how your friend buries them in the mud.
Cindy: You start harvesting up there in August and into September. Look up Sam Thayer’s books — he has a whole tutorial on the burying-in-the-mud thing.
Re: roasting. Do you roast the nut meat within the cracked shell, or roast only the nut meat totally free of it’s shell?
Philbert: After it’s been shelled. If you roast in the shell, they can explode.
It is September 7, 2016 – The bears and birds are eating our hazelnuts that still are quite green. Can we pick these. Will they ripen.
Thank You.
Thanks for a fun and informative read!
My family discovered a copse of hazels on our walk this evening. We’re in Lake Oswego, Oregon, and these are definitely trees with distinct single trunks and pushing thirty feet tall (apparently the Willamette variety). What a fun find! We also discovered two things to help increase the percentage of edible nuts we spent time shelling.
First, there are lots of worms. However, there is always a small line on top of the nut indicating the worm’s entry. Also, husks fell off wormy nuts much more easily.
Second, there are many nuts without edible kernels. This sounds like a pollination problem. But it’s really disappointing to spend the time with Channelocks to crack the nuts only to find them empty. Fortunately, we discovered that nuts with big edible kernels don’t bounce, and empty or shriveled kerneled nuts have a lively bounce. Just drop them on the counter from about ten inches, and don’t bother cracking the nuts that bounce.
Levi: You are finding feral European filberts, which we also call hazelnuts, not the wild variety.
Just fyi: Hazelnuts DO grow on trees. I have a large hazel tree in my front yard and it is loaded with nuts.
Julie: It’s not a native hazel then, it is a European filbert, which we call hazelnuts.
This post was an excellent help in learning what to do – thank you! I’m near Edmonton, Alberta, Canada and we have been here 5 years and this is the first year for the hazelnuts. I think the amount of rain we have had has contributed. I’m loving it!! That goes with the wild strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and saskatoons. I love where I live ??
Our hazelnuts areat least 20 feet tall! (BC Canada)
Finding scavanging after birds and squirrels knock them down is working well! Have to pick them up quick though, the animals hot them all last year!
I live in central France. The hazel is prolific here. It can grow up to 20ft tall. It is possible to train the plant into a tree. Just trim off any growth from around the main stem. If you’re planing to have them in your garden and don’t want a hedge, then a tree is the way to go. A tree will grow more open, and therefore easier to pick the nuts, and it won’t need regular trimming as it doesn’t grow so vigorously.
Here in Oregon Hazelnuts are everywhere. We used to grow walnuts and would take out nuts to a local nut dryer. They offered a cracking service for both walnuts and hazelnuts. When we had our walnuts dried and cracked we would also buy a 50lb bag of cracked but not sorted hazelnuts as well. I know here commercial dryers and crackers are around but then it costs money. However if dealing with a large quantity of nuts it’s can be worth it.
Typically having a bush with a majority of the shells empty means that there isn’t a pollinators tree nearby. They need a second hazelnut nearby to cross pollinate with. Domesticated varieties require a second tree of a different cultivar nearby for max nut production.
MY 13 YEAR OLD SON AND HIS FATHER OUT HUNTING FOUND SOME HERE OUTSIDE ST.STEPHEN N.B. CANADA…THEY WERE WAY PAST AS IT IS NOVEMBER AND THEY WERE ROTTEN AND YOU COULD TELL THE WORMS TOOK OVER…MY SON ASKED HIS DAD IF THE TREE GREW ANY HIGHER AND HE REPLIED YES…HE SAID HE WAS WRONG ON THAT ONE AFTER I READ THIS THROUGH…LEARN SOMETHING NEW EVERY DAY…GOOD READ THANKS ALL! P.C. IN OLD RIDGE, NB
Bet those taste amazing!
I have wild hazelnuts in my yard.I got the small trees in the bush growing in mine rock.They produce every year. We love them.This is in Northern Ontario.
I live in New Brunswick Canada and there are loads this year, which means lots of nuts lots of snow. To peel them we place them in a pillow case and bang them on cement takes the picks off and most of them fall right out of the peeling.
I was given a 5 lb bag all look good but can only crack them with a hammer on cement, any suggestions? Hate to let them go to waste
Use vise grip pliers. Works great.
I would like to know how to tell if they are over ripe or starting to rot. We are in northern Minnesota and just picked a bunch but some have dark brown or black spots on them. The husks are now very brown and dry.
Your article took me way back. Up here in Quebec we used to harvest Corylus americana late in the summer (of course we didn’t care about the Latin genus; we were more concerned about the profits from selling them!). Eager little capitalists that we were, we certainly didn’t wait for their husks to dry out. We used to fashion a husk remover using an open-sided wooden structure and a handled cover, with bottle caps nailed in up and down for grinding. The peeled nuts would fall off the sides and were ready for packaging!
Hi again: I just opened a cluster of 3 nuts and one nut had a worm in it when I cracked open the shell. Is this common and will I see more when I crack them? Should I put them in the oven first after opening them?
Worms happen. I just move on to the next nut when I find one. Or use the worm for bait. 😉
I live in Northern Minnesota and our yard is full of hazelnut bushes. They are in clumps of 2 and 3. Is it the right time now to pick them when they are green with a tinge of brown? This is my first attempt.
The trick is to pick one, and husk it: The husk should come off pretty cleanly. If it’s really stuck to the top of the nut, it’s probably a bad nut. But you can also crack them and see. The new nuts will be juicier and softer than the dried ones, but should still be pretty much like a hazelnut you get in the store. My friend who picks in northern Wisconsin starts picking about now, so I’d check them.
I too am in England…. Cumbria (as cold/wet as you can get!).
Co-incidentally I found some cob nut trees when out walking yesterday and didn’t pick them ‘cos I wasn’t sure they were ripe. I’ll go back today. found your site when I was looking how to tell when they are ripe.
My question is… do they only fruit every 3 years?
Nope, they fruit every year. Some years are stronger than others, and the squirrels really get on them, so you might have missed them in previous years.
Here in Robin Hood county Nottinghamshire UK I have a couple of Kentish cobnut coppices (also known as filberts) which have yielded nicely today because the grey Canadian squirrel hasn’t got to them (I think that I shot it last year!). The grey is an alien but has largely wiped out the native red population over the last 100 years. The nuts are just turning and a sample has a well filled cavity with a fresh tasty nut and no weevil escape holes.
My query is that I am coppicing the hazel(i.e. cutting to about six inches off the ground), as is traditional in England for rods, walking sticks and hurdling material every seven years. If I lay off coppicing can I prune the tree into a better nut bearing shape rather than waiting about three years for it to produce nuts again?.
I live in Northern Northern Michigan on Sugar Island. My Mom taught me how to identify the nut bushes and how to handle them (carefully). This year there are more hazelnuts than I can ever remember. Usually the critters get them all, but tomorrow I am headed down the road with a basket and expect to fill it. I found the bushes all along the road we live on and they are loaded this year. My wife…always the skeptic…will love them.
I’ve tried to grow three CA into a hedge, but two have died in one of the spots and the other two, after five years, have never grown more than 1.5 ft tall and have never bloomed. Perhaps they’re too far under the hackberry tree canopy and aren’t getting enough sun and/or water? (I’m in garden zone 4, so my hazelnut options are limited. They grow in a park along the river about 5 miles south of me, but the squirrels get them.)
Thank you for this informative article on wild hazelnuts. I live in Northern Michigan (U.P.) and found them in my back yard. I remember as a kids seeing these in the woods and had forgotten about them until I was walking the perimeter of my yard, low & behold, there were bushes. I am so excited and can’t wait to pick a lot of them. I’ve picked a few, based on your information that I thought were ready and am drying them out. Thanks again!
Northern WISC. Is covered in hazelnuts! Bears love them too!
The hazel in my backyard here in Portland is ginormous! Must be overgrown or something – easily 20 feet tall with a huge trunk.
When I originally read this post, it was with great jealousy. For some reason I had it in my head that we didn’t have any wild nut trees in Newfoundland, but I was wrong. Days after your post, I literally tripped over a beaked hazel casing in the middle of a trail… likely dropped by a blue jay (the jays were going insane in the nearby shrubs). It took a bit of looking but my partner and I managed to find some and picked about a pound of them. Went back a few days later, found several more shrubs but no hazelnuts except a few on the ground. The local beasts are obviously doing a good job cleaning them up; I think we were very lucky to have found them at all.
I don’t know if we have beaked hazelnuts here, but I live in an older neighbourhood with lots of nut trees about. Right now is proving to be the perfect time to gather the falling nuts off the ground to take home and dry – glad I made this new discovery, and funny you should be talking about the same thing!
Wow! I just checked the CalFlora website to see where Corylus cornuta grows cause I am not familiar with it. It freakin grows everywhere. 0 to 7,000 feet. Every forest type and some grassland and even wet lands. Even though I am too late for this year’s harvest….I have a new mission. Gonna find me some hazelnuts and be prepared for the next harvest.
Thanks for a very informative article Hank.
Here in Northern Virginia, there are native species of hazelnut and a couple of years ago, the local water conservation board offered them in their annual tree and shrub sale. So, I have four little ones (they are still only about 18″ tall) that I am waiting on to grow and produce. Maybe I need to move them to an area that has more moisture.
Thanks Hank,
Found these to our great excitement on Labour Day….had recently seen your post but never thought we would find them in Newfoundland.
Fefe aka Susie
I recently picked at least 20 pounds of the Eastern strain of beaked Hazelnuts. I usually never find many, as the squirrels and other critters get most of them. But this year I nailed it !!. I am planning to make some Hazelnut & Coriander pesto with some and Hazelnut Ice -Cream with some and maybe sell the rest. The nuts are as large and plentiful,as i have ever seen this year. RP
The pictured nuts are just like those I picked from bushes in Ireland when I was a boy. They grew on bushes on slightly wet, ungrazed fields. All of the local children knew where they were but they were not picked until they had ripened about this time of year. We did not know that we were foraging!
Lesson for the day: Hazelnuts don’t grow on trees? All hazelnuts? Who knew! (Not me obviously…)
Clay: I don’t think they make it to SoCal. Sorry!
In California, how far south do wild hazelnuts grow? I live along the coast in Ventura (just south of Santa Barbara).
The wildlife here in MS never seem to leave more than a handful of Corylus americana.
Great article! I’ve been looking for the wrong thing.
The one place I have seen wild hazelnuts (or were they filberts?) was in England (near Lakenheath in East Anglia). A vendor had a small basket of them among other locally grown & foraged foods. She showed me the plant, bushy & similar to what you described, but the nuts were cased in a spiny casing that reminded me somewhat of a horse chestnut fruit. It split open into 3 pieces, and this is when they were harvested. The nuts were rather unusual, very elongated.
Ah, Wild Hazelnuts! A long-time favorite. When we built our house a dozen years ago, I got a few American hazelnut seedlings from my friend Ken Asmus at Oikos Tree Crops and those couple of plants have grown into a dense hedge along the south side of the house. We get as many nuts as we need, with plenty left over for the critters (although if you were to ask them, the squirrels and birds would certainly wish for more). Easy to grow, a lot easier to shell than black walnuts, and so many yummy ways to eat…you can’t beat hazel nuts!
The few hazel nuts that I have found in CA on bushes have near always been empty. Have I been looking for them too late? The few that had a kernel were nice though. (Same for Utah etc. pine nuts around Thanksgiving time.)