Two hundred productive hazelnut trees are the result of nine years of good planning and hard work by Neville and Coleen Hastie on their Warrington property of ½ hectare. You may have met them at one of the coastal markets this summer and sampled their delicious locally grown hazelnuts. Coleen has baked chocolate hazelnut biscuits for folks to try as an introduction to the fine taste of their homegrown nuts.
They were always keen home vegetable and flower gardeners but wanted to grow a crop on a larger scale. After a lot of good research they decided on hazelnuts, a crop well suited for this climate. By growing mostly the White Heart variety with 3 additional varieties as pollinators they plan for overlapping pollination seasons. Italian alders provide just the right shelterbelt, allowing 20% of the wind to come through to support good crops of nuts. The time for harvest is just about now, late May. They are looking forward to using their new vacuum harvester after years of “harvesting on our hands and knees, recruiting the grandkids and using all kinds of contraptions!” The vacuum harvester will pick up the nuts and leaves and separate them out as it goes. About 20% of the nuts harvested will still have their husks that need to be removed by hand. The nuts are then washed and hung in onion bags in lots of 2.5kg to dry. When the moisture drops to 8% they are ready to eat. They keep well up to 2 years in the shell.
Coleen and Neville specialise in “cracking to order”, preparing individual orders as they are received. Over time they have built up a loyal customer email base (ncnuts@xtra.co.nz) and also take orders by phone (03-482-1931). Standard packets are 200 grams but other sizes can be made to order.
They describe their hazelnuts as “locally grown-fresh and natural” as they use no sprays on their trees. More people are realising the nutritional value of nuts and are seeking good locally produced food. Hazelnuts make a healthy snack, are a delicious ingredient in baking, and work well in pesto and in homemade muesli. Yummmmmmmm.
Contact info for this column:
Patti Vanderburg vburg@es.co.nz
Suzi Flack suzi@parisettes.com
