Hazelnuts because they are historic to the whole Oregon and Washington Area were the first nuts I was given to crack and eat around 1950 when I was around 2 years old. I remember pinching my fingers in the cracking mechanism but with diligence I slowly learned to use this tool. Likely this tool became the basis of all tools that I found useful in the future, except for spoons, knives and forks which I used before then. But, I can clearly remember a wooden bowl filled with hazelnuts around the Fall and learning to crack and eat hazelnuts then in Lake Forest Park near Seattle Washington where I lived then.
HazelnutsHazelnuts, also called filberts, have provided food for...
Hazelnuts
Hazelnuts, also called filberts, have provided food for
indigenous peoples in the Northern Hemisphere since the glacial age. Two
varieties are important to Oregon. Corylus Cornuta var. californica grows wild in the state and is now planted for erosion control and wildlife habitat. C. avellana
L., which settlers brought to Oregon Territory from England and France
in the 1850s, became the genesis of the hazelnut industry in Oregon. The
Willamette Valley, with its fertile soil and mild climate, is now home to 99.9 percent of the U.S. commercial hazelnut industry.
Hazelnut trees are unusual in that they pollinate during winter, when their catkins (flowering stems) elongate and pollen travels by wind to tiny red flowers on the branches. Varieties of hazelnut, chosen by farmers according to the trees’ ability to pollinate one another, are planted in evenly spaced rows. Nuts fall from the trees in September and are mechanically harvested from clean orchard floors. They are washed, dried, and sold in the shell or cracked and sold as kernels. Oregon hazelnuts are in demand throughout the world because of their high quality and large size.
The oldest Oregon hazelnut orchard, Dorris Ranch, was planted in 1903 near Eugene. The nonprofit, working ranch is still in production.
In 2008, 650 farm families in Oregon, many multi-generational, grew hazelnuts on 30,100 acres and produced 32,000 tons of nuts. From 2004 through 2008, the average farm-gate price that Oregon farmers received for their hazelnuts—that is, the value of the nuts when they left the farm—was $60 million. In 1989, the Oregon legislature named the hazelnut the Oregon state nut.
Hazelnut trees are unusual in that they pollinate during winter, when their catkins (flowering stems) elongate and pollen travels by wind to tiny red flowers on the branches. Varieties of hazelnut, chosen by farmers according to the trees’ ability to pollinate one another, are planted in evenly spaced rows. Nuts fall from the trees in September and are mechanically harvested from clean orchard floors. They are washed, dried, and sold in the shell or cracked and sold as kernels. Oregon hazelnuts are in demand throughout the world because of their high quality and large size.
The oldest Oregon hazelnut orchard, Dorris Ranch, was planted in 1903 near Eugene. The nonprofit, working ranch is still in production.
In 2008, 650 farm families in Oregon, many multi-generational, grew hazelnuts on 30,100 acres and produced 32,000 tons of nuts. From 2004 through 2008, the average farm-gate price that Oregon farmers received for their hazelnuts—that is, the value of the nuts when they left the farm—was $60 million. In 1989, the Oregon legislature named the hazelnut the Oregon state nut.
Author
Further Reading
Carey, C.H. History of Oregon. Vol. 1. Chicago: The Pioneer Historical Publishing Co., 1922. 799-805.Duke, James. Handbook of Nuts. Boca Raton, Fla: CRC Press, Inc., 1989. pp.126-127.
This entry was last updated on Jan. 27, 2017
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