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We have Hazelnuts in old orchards out on the coast, BC and Oregon.
They're almost the only nut I know of that will thrive in cold, rainy
climates. There's probably no money in them; I don't see new
orchard going in anywhere.
In dry Vernon in the Okanagan there are some city trees in the parks
that have extremely large hazelnuts, but the squirrels beat me to it.
Here in CA, Sprouts has hazelnuts in the bulk nut bins (alone, as well as mixed with other nuts), but only around the holidays. After Christmas, they seem to disappear. My son loves them so I buy a lot and let him binge on cracking and eating them for a few weeks in December.
We only tend to see the ones in their shells around the holidays. The denuded ones are widely available year round, typically in bulk bins at nicer stores and little packages at more downmarket places.
I hate to tell you guys this, but here in Portland, Hazelnuts (or Filberts) are almost like a weed.
I have one tree in my backyard and the squirrels have buried nuts all over the place so every year I have to go out and pull up at least a dozen errant Hazelnut sprouts.
Like thedwightguy said, they thrive in this kind of climate.
In fact Oregon grows over 90% of the American commercial crop, and is our state nut (non-human anyways).
Odd that in the US, hazelnuts are associated with damp climates since the main producers in the world are Turkey, Iran, Azerbaijan, Italy, Greece, Cyprus, and Spain. Not exactly countries known for their lushness.
Hazel trees do grow throughout Europe, much of the Middle East, and North America, but their commercial cultivation seems largely limited to countries with drier climates. England and the US (PNW) are the major exceptions.
Interestingly, the hazelnuts grown in the PNW are a hybrid of the Eurasian variety and the North American variety which grows naturally in the East. Reasearch into the cause of Eastern Hazelnut Blight may make this hybrid suitable for cultivation across the US which would result in a potential explosion of hazelnut availability since, as mentioned, Nutella is currently buying up the world's hazelnut supply.
Last edited by ABQConvict; 12-22-2015 at 12:03 PM..
I'm nominating this thread for the best information "proferred" in the shortest amount of comments.
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