Nut Wizard

The Nut Wizard

http://www.holtsnutwizard.biz/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/.pond/DSC00095.JPG.w560h420.jpg

I have recently written about growing oak trees and using acorns as food. I have also written in the past about chestnuts, hazelnuts/filberts, and walnuts. My only complaint with nut trees is actually having to harvest the nuts themselves. There have been a number of techniques developed to help harvest nuts, but I don't think I have come across anything as simple and effective as the Nut Wizard. I must be honest and state that I have never tried the Nut Wizard myself... yet. The moment I am able to harvest nuts on more than an occasional basis, then I will be buying one (or more). But when an icon in forest gardening, like Martin Crawford, endorses the Nut Wizard, then I have to believe it is a good product.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yq4XcMNaixs

The Nut Wizard was invented by Cecil Holt who said that the idea for this nut collector came to him in a dream. He created it initially for pecans, but in a short time the Nut Wizard was being used for all types of nuts as well as other items like golf and tennis balls. There are a number of sizes available for the desired nut to be harvested.

You can order the Nut Wizard from Holt's website: http://www.holtsnutwizard.biz/  This is not a great website, but it is functional. I have also put links up to Amazon to make it easier:

• Nut Wizard - 11", Extra Small: Acorns (small) from most Oaks, or other nuts 3/8 inch (9.5 mm) to 1 inch (25 mm) in diameter.
• Nut Wizard - 12", Small: Pecans (small to large), Acorns from White Oak, or other nuts 1/2 inch (12.7 mm) to 1.5 inches (38 mm) in diameter, will also work for many crabapple varieties.
• Nut Wizard - 14", Medium: Pecans (very large), English Walnuts, Hazelnuts/Filberts, Acorns from Red Oak, Chestnut Oak, Hickory Nuts, Chestnuts, or other nuts 1 inch (25 mm) to 2 inches (50 mm) in diameter, will also work with medium-sized fruits.
• Nut Wizard - 17", Large: Black Walnuts, Sweet Gum Balls (ouch!), Apples, Citrus, Osage Orange, or other fruits and nuts 1.5 inches (38 mm) to 4 inches (100 mm) in diameter.

Eastern Filbert Blight. What is it and what do we do about it?

Hazelnuts... a nut that has been planted around the world

http://www.nutfruit.org/hazelnut_7411.jpg

Eastern Filbert Blight (EFB) is a disease of Hazel shrubs and trees. As I have explained in my previous article (What's in a name? Hazelnut vs Filbert), Hazels are also known as Hazelnuts or Filberts and even Cobnuts. Eastern Filbert Blight is caused by Anisogramma anomola. This is a fungus originating in northeastern North America, and it infects Hazels (Corylus species). When growing on these plants (i.e. plants that are native to the area that this fungus naturally occurs), the fungus is not a problem.

The small cankers of a mild Eastern Filbert Blight infection.

http://www.portlandmonthlymag.com/data/images/2012/12/image/22042/0113-eastern-filbert-blight.jpg

However, with the advent of international travel and the spread of cultivated plants, we soon realized that this fungus can be deadly to non-native Hazels (i.e. Hazels that are not native to the eastern United States and Canada). When these plants are infected, very large cankers grow around the trunk and slowly suffocate or “girdle” the plant. Most plants die within 5-10 years after infection, and plants that do not die have a significant decline in productivity.

A Corkscrew Hazel (a named variety) infected, and slowly dying, of EFB

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The problem is that most commercial orchards are composed of non-North American Hazels, typically varieties of the European Filbert (Corylus avellana). These plants are devastated by Eastern Filbert Blight. Many attempts to grow the tastier European Filbert in the eastern U.S. failed due to poor understanding of this disease; however, large and successful orchards of European Filberts have grown very well in the Pacific Northwest for over a hundred years.

Unfortunately, in 1973, the Eastern Filbert Blight was identified in the Pacific Northwest. How it got there, no one is certain, but we do know that it has been slowly spreading through commercial orchards since. There are very large campaigns funded by the U.S. and Canada to identify and halt the spread of this disease, and there are fungicides are available that can kill A. anomola.

With all this information, what is the home grower to do? Fortunately, there are many new cultivars and hybrids that have been developed with partial to almost complete tolerance or resistance to Eastern Filbert Blight. Treating trees with fungicides has a lot of unintended consequences.

My recommendation is just to plant trees resistant to the blight. Most of us are not going to be commercial Hazelnut growers. We don’t have acre upon acre of European Filberts, and we don’t have our sole source of income depending on the size of nut or quantity of harvest. Granted, some of the hybrids produce nuts that are smaller than the larger commercial hazelnuts, but when it comes to long-term health of our bodies and our land, as well as the time spent in trying to identify, prevent, and treat this disease, a smaller nut is not that big of a deal.

What’s in a name? Hazelnut vs. Filbert vs. Cobnut

Hazelnuts... one of my favorite nuts!

http://www.orfoodcard.com/images/Hazelnuts.jpeg

What is the difference between a Hazelnut and a Filbert and a Cobnut? This is a convoluted issue with a lot of history, but here is my best attempt to piece it all together:

To begin with, there are between 14-18 species in the Corylus genus, depending on the botanist. All of the Corylus species are technically in the Corylaceae Family which many modern botanists are calling the Hazel family. Therefore all Corylus species produce “hazelnuts” in a general term.

Shelled Hazelnuts.

http://www.nutfruit.org/hazelnut_7411.jpg

The name “hazel” likely comes from the Anglo-Saxon word haesel which means bonnet or head-dress. This describes the shape of the shell surrounding the nut. It is unlikely describing the color of the nut.

Many hundreds of years ago, the hazel species in Britain were given the common name “filbert”. Species that were discovered by British botanists in later years were often given the common name filbert if they were a shrub and hazel if they were a tree.

So where did the name “filbert” come from? There are two possible reasons for this name. The first is that the nuts mature around 22 August, a.k.a. St. Philibert’s Day (Saint Philibert of Jumieges was a French monk). The second reason is that the husked shell of a hazelnut resembles a beard, and the German word for “full beard” is vollbart. Over time, with English influences, this word may have became “filbert”. However, no one is really sure which the real origin of the name is.

With all that said, any Corylus species that have the common name “filbert” (i.e. European Filberts, Common Filbert, etc.) produce filberts, but they technically are all hazelnuts.

Kentish Cobnuts... fresh and ready to eat.

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Now to further confuse the issue, some varieties of hazels grown in Britain are called “cobnuts”. This was based on a game kids used to play with the nuts where the winning nut was called the cob. Most cobnuts are cultivars of a variety named Kentish Cob. Cobnuts are also unique in that they are typically sold fresh, not dried. This gives the nuts a seasonal market and unique culinary uses.

To be complete in my explanation, some will say that filberts are longer and thinner, and non-filberts are shorter and more round. This is sometimes true, but is often based on species and varieties/cultivars.

A selection of nuts from an unspecified and unnamed group of British trees.

Note the variation on sizes and shapes... 

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Finally, what really throws this whole naming scheme off is that people have regional preferences for what they call the nut from Corylus species. If you are in eastern North America, they may be called either filberts or hazelnuts depending on your family history. If you are in the Pacific Northwest, they are filberts to the older generation; the younger generation knows them as hazelnuts thanks to marketing starting in 1981. If you are in England or Europe, you probably call then filberts unless you specifically are speaking about cobnuts. If you are in Turkey, you probably call them hazelnuts. Of course, in Asia the local names are completely different.

So there you have it. In the end, I don't really care what they are called. These are just one of my favorite nuts!

Stay tuned for more information about growing Hazels.