Tree Hazel Grove

Running in a curved line along the lower portion of this hillside are hazelnut trees. Because there are hazlenut trees already growing throughout the woods and along the car park fringes at Barnsdale, the hazelnuts planted here are trees of less common types and have been grafted so that they are more likely to grow with a single trunk as ‘standard’ trees. Most hazelnut trees have multiple stems. This grove a mixture of common hazels (Corylus avellana) which have been selected for their superior nuts or attractive leaf colour and Turkish tree hazels (Corylus colurna) which a much more vigorous and eventually make large trees. Some trees are hybrids of common hazel and Turkish tree hazel and are called ‘trazels’ (Corylus x colurnoides). They often produce larger hazelnuts than either parent.

The hazel also is known as cobnut or filbert nut according to species. A cob is roughly spherical to oval, with an outer fibrous husk surrounding a smooth shell and a filbert is more elongated and bullet-shaped. In practice, hazel, cob & filbert are all generally used to describe the same thing!

If it is not eaten by squirrels, the nut falls out of the husk when ripe, about seven to eight months after pollination. The nut inside is used raw or roasted or ground into a paste. Hazelnuts are used in baking and desserts, in confectionery to make praline, and also used for chocolate truffles and products such as chocolate bars and in hazelnut chocolate spreads such as Nutella.

Whilst excavating a site on the Isle of Colonsay in Scotland in 1995, archaeologists found evidence of hazelnut processing operation from the Mesolithic era dating back 6,000 to 8,000 years.

You are in the middle of a row of Hazel Nut trees