Picking Hazelnuts (Cobnuts)

I picked these Hazelnuts from a tree that over-hangs my garden. The tree isn’t strictly mine (actually it’s not even slightly mine) but my neighbours like me and they said I can have all the nuts I want off the tree. So – mine!

I wasn’t sure whether to call them Hazelnuts or Cobnuts. Some people switch between the two names, but as it turns out a Cobnut is a type of Hazelnut anyway. The trick is to pick them when they have just started to turn brown but before the squirrels have abseiled in and scoffed the lot. Luckily, for me my two evil cats have managed to keep the squirrels at bay.

So anyway. The Hazelnuts are ready to be picked and I found this lovely site, Allens Farm, one of the few commercial growers of Cobnuts now in the UK. It has some good background information and crucially some recipes, since I have no idea what to actually do with the nuts now I have them in my possession!

Category: Foraging     Tagged: ,

10 Comments on “Picking Hazelnuts (Cobnuts)”

  1. My cats obviously aren’t evil enough – the squirrels snaffled all my hazels – filberts and cobnuts – weeks ago!

    Celia

  2. They look so lovely! Hope you post on what you end up doing with them. Wish I had such lovely neigbours – all I get from mine are overhanging ivy and jasmine!

  3. Funny – as an American I never know if I should call them Hazelnuts or Filberts- but checked like you and Filberts are a type of hazelnut so same story- different side of “the pond”

  4. Marvellous. We planted two small cobnut/filbert trees at the bottom of the garden last winter, so hopefully in a few years we’ll be harvesting our own too! That’s if the cows stop leaning over and chewing on the tips of them…

  5. I am a Maid of Kent and have always loved Kentish cobnuts; I had never even thought of COOKING them – they never last that long when I buy them. I now have a very small tree courtesy of a friend so am hoping to have my own in a year or two. Perhaps then I will have enough left to try some of those recipes!

  6. I have these at the bottom of my garden. Well, I say ‘have’ but actually it’s ‘had’. One day I thought ‘ah lovely I’ll pick those hazelnuts this weekend’. The next day I thought ‘did I dream that? where did they go?’. Now I know that I’m keeping the local squirrels going for the winter. Hey ho.

  7. I have noticed that there are loads more cobnuts this year. There were hardly any last year. Must have been the hard winter we had. I’m off to start picking before those squirrel do.

  8. Hi does anyone know if its ok to preserve plums in sherry? Do I need to add a specific amount of sugar and is an alcohol content of 18% enough to stop me making everyone ill?
    Suggestion please……
    Cheers, Deb.

  10. I’m in Oregon, the Pacific Northwest of the U.S., where we grow a lot of hazelnuts/filberts. I am searching online to find out what to do with them (let them dry, roast them??). The trees I have are volunteers – we have squirrels in the neighborhood who do our planting!

    They apparently knew what they were doing – it’s only mid-August, and the hazelnuts are on the ground. I think the squirrels caused that, because I see them running around in the trees with stuffed cheeks. I managed to grab a few (nuts, not squirrels!) and they don’t seem at all ready to eat. I think that trying to keep them on the tree until they might be ready is totally futile. The squirrels use my yard/garden as their personal grocery store.