Hazelnut

Lore & Background

Evidence of large-scale Mesolithic hazelnut processing, some 8,000 years old, was found in a midden pit on the island of Colonsay in Scotland. The pit contained hundreds of thousands of burned hazelnut shells, radiocarbon dated to around 6000 BCE. While the abundance of shells suggests intensive harvesting, the archaeological evidence does not confirm that all hazel trees were cut down simultaneously or that this indicates communal planning. The scarcity of large game on the island suggests the community may have had a largely vegetarian diet during their time there.

Reader's Guide

Hazelnuts have been a significant food source for millennia, as shown by Mesolithic processing sites. Their cultivation and harvesting have evolved from traditional brutting—snapping new shoots to increase flower bud production—to modern mechanized methods using sweepers, harvesters, nut carts, and forklifts. In Europe, hazelnuts are traditionally grown as multi-trunk trees, though single-trunk grafting on Corylus colurna rootstock allows mechanization. The nuts are harvested annually in mid-autumn, often by waiting for them to drop naturally. Turkey dominates global production, with Italy and the United States as other major producers. Hazelnuts are used in praline, chocolate truffles, Nutella, Frangelico liqueur, and hazelnut oil, which is high in monounsaturated fat. The traditional term for a cultivated hazelnut area is a plat, and in the UK, Kentish cobnuts are a specific variety hand-picked and eaten green.

Did You Know?

• A hazelnut cob is roughly spherical to oval, while a filbert is more elongated, about twice as long as its diameter.
• In 1995, a Mesolithic pit on Colonsay, Scotland, contained hundreds of thousands of burned hazelnut shells dated to about 6000 BCE.
• The traditional method to increase nut production is called brutting, which involves snapping but not breaking off the tips of new shoots.
• In Ireland and the UK, hazelnuts are sometimes called cobnuts, and a national collection of cobnut varieties exists at Roughway Farm in Kent.