While stopping near Minneapolis at my brother’s house, we saw the damage that Japanese beetles can do to the hazelnuts. These hazelnuts are seedlings from Riverbend Hazelnuts planted a couple years ago. Make sure to keep your eye out for these beetles. We don’t want them in North Dakota! Japanese beetles can damage many plants […]
The heavy hazelnut crop this year was decimated by the 50 mph winds that blew through this week Of course it was the larger hazelnuts that fell off in the high winds. They aren’t quite ripe yet. Still another couple weeks to go. The wind broke off some whole branches with hazelnuts on.
Dan made a sorter to sort the hazelnuts by size so it’s easier to run through the cracker. The sorted hazelnuts. Dan using the drill operated cracker. The cracked hazelnuts. Dan constructed an aspirator that will separate the shells from the hazelnut meats. The nuts and shells get sucked up through the hose, and since […]
The fall colors vary from green to gold to red.
I’m finally posting an update about our fall harvest! Hazelnuts started to be picked starting in mid to late-August and ending by mid-September. The ripening varies because of the wide variety of plants that are planted in our “test” orchard. Dan collecting hazelnuts Each bunch is picked and put in a bag. Drying out the […]
If you recently bought one of our plants. Here is a fact sheet that will help in planting. You can always contact us at riverbendhazelnuts@gmail.com for more detailed planting information. HYBRID HAZELNUTS from Dan Johnson at Riverbend Hazelnuts Grows as a shrub 6 to 10 feet tall, and will make a wonderful edible hedge. Has […]
After we taste test the hazelnuts, and look at all its various characteristics (non-suckering, thin-shelled nut, good taste ect.), we choose the best ones and plant them. To grow hazelnuts from seed, they need to be stratified (undergo a period of cold temperature) in order to germinate. This can be done in two ways. You […]
After the hazelnuts are all picked, they need to be dried down for a few weeks. For the best varieties of hazelnuts the nuts will fall right out of the husks, so those nuts can just be put in a paper bag and set in a cool, dry location. For the hazelnuts that don’t drop […]
OK. I am finally updating. I meant to update during harvest, but things just got busy. We had a very good crop this year! Lots of nuts from lots of trees. I think the hot pepper spray is working its magic on the squirrels. On the last post I talked about how to tell if […]
The hazelnuts are just starting to ripen! Now we just need to collect them before the squirrels can get to them. We started spraying them last week with our hot pepper spray, (see August 17, 2012 post for recipe), which seems to help deter the squirrels from completely wiping out he hazelnut crop. My dad has also […]