Nuts

I've been running by the same monstrosity of a shrub at least three times a week for the past five years, smugly wondering if the owners knew that their once interesting Contorted Filburt (Corylus avellana 'Contorta') had reverted to just a plain old, overgrown Corylus avellna.

It wasn't until my wife brought us a home a bucket of hazelnuts from her father, did I realize those annoying ball bearing-like seeds may have been worth paying closer attention to.

On my next run I casually scooped up a few, took them home and cracked the sweaty nuts open to reveal that they were indeed, hazelnuts.

I contacted the owner, got permission to Harvest, and headed back to the shrub with visions of the liqueur I would make from my barrels of hazelnuts. No death knell or threat to the international Agribusiness, an hour later I had roughly a mason jar's worth of nuts to show for my effort.

I'm left wondering how many Corylus avellna shrubs one would need to make hazelnut liqueur.