Re: Seen in Munster
Posted: Fri Apr 07, 2017 6:46 pm
i was thinking of you when i read about hazelnuts (link, page 1.)RZehr wrote:Most of the worlds hazelnuts are grown in Turkey but I think also in Greece and Italy and Spain.
Oregon is planting them like crazy right now, providing 99% of the US production, and exporting to China. Thousands of acres of hazelnut trees are being planted here. I don't have any, but my family does. The local name for them is filberts, but that name doesn't market well, so they market them as hazelnuts.
i believe the Oregon investment will pay off.
after visiting Switzerland, i wondered if the big peanut industry in the U.S. had anything to do with the general ignorance of hazelnuts in the U.S.? (not seeking an answer.) a passing question, when i saw hazelnuts used Europe (like we use peanuts.)
my father liked all kinds of nuts; he called them filberts, mainly. he used both names.
he esp liked filberts, they were not common when i was growing up, at all. a special treat.
all nuts were costly, so, always a treat. they still are, but not as rare in my life as they were when i was young.
he seemed to know quite a lot about nuts.
he had a general dream of starting a tree nursery when i was young. a family business. that may have been how he happened to learn (?) .. he talked about pecan trees growing in the south. in his young years, he grew up on a peach orchard, he had lots of tales of peach recipes - peach everything! those stories now make me think of appleman.
he became very weary of "peach everything."
in those years, our local winter weather was so harsh, the next Ice Age stuff, peach trees could not survive this far north. they are sensitive to hard winters. the orchard he grew up on was a few hours south (travel was slower then, probably 1-2 hours south today.)
from what i've read, hazelnuts seem like a good crop. the shrubs are not too big, different varieties cope with different growing zones, etc. i decided against having any, like i said, 'cause i didn't want to bait squirrels! in that above link, i read blue jays can be a problem. i see them around, too. they can be pesky.
i look forward to more hazelnuts in everyday life. i hope Oregon growers do well.
i read about the crops in Turkey. present international politics there are not good, so, i can imagine there is incentive for alternate markets.
one of my "secret recipes" for my family was to take some hazelnut flavoring, add a bit to cocoa. they loved it, i never told them what i added, they just thought it was luscious! a treat.
hazelnut flavoring in coffees is fab, too. ice cream!
funny how when peanuts are added to anything, they can be readily identified!
hazelnuts enhance+add to flavor without being so readily id'd.
peanuts are legumes, but, treated as nuts.
i guess i'm turning into my father.