As part of BBY magazine’s June issue story on growing nuts at home, you can download our two bonus fact sheets on growing hazelnuts and peanuts as two separate pdf files
(click here for hazelnuts, and here for peanuts).
Hazelnuts (by Peter Valder) is from our May 2012 issue, and peanuts (by Elizabeth Swane) is from our January 2012 issue. If you have any troubles with either pdf download, the full text of those fact sheets is included below.
Hazelnuts fact sheet
More than nutty
Hazelnut trees provide nuts in autumn, they make lovely small ornamental trees, and you might harvest some truffles from them, too!
Text by Peter Valder
Although they find their way into our diet in a wide variety of forms, it seems to me that, of all the commonly available nuts, hazelnuts are the least well-known, though we consume a lot of them in one form or another.
The name ‘hazelnut’ applies to the nuts of any of the species of the genus Corylus, small deciduous trees and shrubs which occur widely in the temperate regions of the northern hemisphere. Their nuts have been collected and used as human food since prehistoric times and they are known to have been cultivated for at least two or three thousand years.
The Romans, for instance, grew what is the best-known species, Corylus avellana, and introduced it to Britain and northern Europe. Corylus, incidentally, is the Greek name for this nut and avellana means ‘of Avella Vecchia’, an ancient town in southern Italy.
male & female
Like others of the genus, Corylus avellana produces its male and female flowers separately on the same plant. In late winter the male flowers appear in slender catkins which, hanging from the leafless branches, give the plants a most attractive appearance. The female flowers, on the other hand, are produced in inconspicuous bud-like clusters surrounded by leaf-like bracts. Curiously, although the pollen from the male flowers falls or is blown onto the female flowers at this time of year, it does not bring about fertilisation until three or four months later. The nuts then develop throughout the summer, maturing and falling naturally in autumn.
Numerous cultivated varieties have now been named and there are two main types – those in which the nuts protrude from the surrounding bracts and those in which they are almost completely enclosed. The latter kinds, sometimes called filberts, have been considered by some botanists to belong to a different species, Corylus maxima, though nowadays they are usually considered to be varieties or cultivars of the common hazelnut.
many branches
Apart from being producers of nuts, hazelnut trees have other important uses. As it happens these trees are naturally multi-stemmed, branching from their bases of their own accord, sending up narrow growths to 4-5m. In Europe advantage has long been taken of this habit of continually branching from the base for the practice known as coppicing, the cutting back of the plants to their bases every few years to provide rods for use as stakes and woven structures such as wattles and light fences.
ornamentals
Hazelnuts have also found favour for use as ornamental small trees, particularly on account of their yellow catkins produced in winter and their handsome oval or round leaves with toothed edges in the warmer months. Several ornamental varieties have been named, for example ‘Aurea’ and ‘Purpurea’ both of which are most attractive garden plants.
Not surprisingly, ‘Aurea’ has yellow young leaves which become a little greener in summer, and ‘Purpurea’ has exceptionally dark purple foliage and produces purple-tinged catkins.
Equally striking is the variety ‘Contorta’, the corkscrew hazel, also known, at least in the past, as Harry Lauder’s walking stick (Sir Harry Lauder was a famous Scottish singer and entertainer). With its spirally twisted shoots and yellow catkins this is particularly effective in winter and is a great favourite with flower arrangers. These varieties are well worth growing in cooler zones but care must be taken to remove any suckers should the plants happen to have been grafted onto seedling or other stock.
culinary uses
Hazelnut kernels are usually eaten whole or as an ingredient of various types of cakes and confectionery, whether whole, crushed, ground into flour or made into a paste. They are commonly used to make pralines and chocolate truffles (see Tracy’s recipe above). They are also used in ice- creams, for making spreads such as the popular Nutella, and for flavouring liqueurs such as the Frangelico of northern Italy. And they star, too, in the cake world where, notable among an array of different recipes, they are regular ingredients of the rich layered confections known as tortes and dacquoises.
buying tips
In the case of the varieties grown for their nuts it is particularly important that the plants are not grafted and are on their own roots so that they can develop naturally, continually producing shoots from their bases. Hazelnuts have proved difficult to grow from cuttings so that propagators have resorted to layering or taking rooted suckers from established plants. Look for the ‘Three Trees 4 Nuts’ which are supplied to retailers in suitable climates in winter, as a unit consisting of three dormant bare-rooted young hazelnut trees. A list of retail stockists of ‘Three Trees 4 Nuts’ is published on the Australian Gourmet Hazelnuts website, www.gourmethazelnuts.com.au
other truffles!
Hazelnuts are capable of hosting truffles in the soil around the tree’s roots. These ‘real’ truffles are fungal fruiting bodies which have a strong scent highly prized by gourmets. These are of course very different things from the popular chocolatey sweets, also called truffles, a recipe for which appears on this page.
Tracy’ s hazelnut praline truffles
Prep time: 30 minutes
Cooking time: about 20 minutes + 4 hours chilling
Makes: about 45
2 cups (270g) hazelnuts
1/2 cup (125mL) cream
400g dark chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup (110g) caster sugar
1. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Spread the hazelnuts onto a tray and roast for 8 minutes, until lightly golden. Cool slightly, then tip onto a tea towel, then rub the nuts in the cloth to loosen the skins. Take the hazelnuts off the tea towel, leaving the papery skin behind (some won’t come off at all, but that’s OK).
2. Pour the cream into a saucepan, and add the chocolate. Heat over low heat until the cream is warm and the chocolate is just starting to melt, then remove from the heat and stir until smooth. Transfer to a bowl, and stand for 20 minutes, until cooled and thickened.
3. Place half the hazelnuts close together on a foil-lined oven tray. Finely chop the remaining hazelnuts (or do it in the food processor, but do it in short bursts only).
4. Combine the sugar in a saucepan with 1/2 cup (125mL) water. Stir over low heat without boiling until the sugar has dissolved. Bring to the boil over medium heat, then cook without stirring for 10 minutes, until the toffee turns a golden brown colour. Pour over the hazelnuts, and leave for 15 minutes, until set hard.
5. Break up the hazelnut toffee and process to crumbs. Stir into the chocolate mixture, and refrigerate for about 4 hours, until firm. Roll heaped teaspoons of mixture into balls. Roll in the chopped hazelnuts, and store in a single layer in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 1 week. Take from the fridge to soften slightly before serving.
Peanuts fact sheet
Peanuts & corn
The ‘companion planting’ combo of peanuts and corn has long been popular with farmers, and the great news is that you can now buy peanut seedlings, making it very easy to get started with peanuts and corn in your own backyard.
Text by Elizabeth Swane
So, why are peanuts and corn such a classic ‘companion planting’ combo? Well, for starters, they don’t compete with each other, they help each other out. They both like the same soils and growing conditions, so they are meant for each other.
Peanuts are low, spreading plants, and so their foliage acts like a mulch over the ground around the corn. This ‘living mulch’ helps to suppress weeds and retain soil moisture around the corn plants, but peanuts have an extra benefit to offer. These plants are legumes – just like beans and peas – and through special nodules on their roots they capture nitrogen from the atmosphere and add it to the soil. The corn plants love this natural fertiliser boost.
Corn helps the peanut plants out by providing shelter for its smaller companion, allowing the peanuts to flowers and set their pods undisturbed.
great news
The great news for gardeners trying to grow peanuts for the first time is that seedlings will be readily available.
If you’re keen you can grow your own peanut plants from seed (all you need is raw, unprocessed nuts still with their unblemished brown outer skins, bought from health food stores: sow each seed 3-5cm deep and if they are fresh they should germinate in one to two weeks).
However, the new seedlings make it quicker, easier and more reliable to get started – and in temperate and cooler parts of Australia you’ll need to waste no time getting your peanut plants planted. In our warmer zones you still have plenty of time to get a crop going.
harvest
The nuts remain in the ground for about three months, and are harvested in late summer when the foliage starts to turn brown. Test for ripeness by forking up a few nuts. Look for dark-coloured pods inside the shell, where the kernel should be changing from a pink to gold colour. Not all the pods will be ready at once, but as you dig up the whole plant, make sure most are ready before lifting.
To harvest peanuts, dig up the whole plant, shake off the excess soil and hang the entire thing up in a warm, dry place, such as the garage or garden shed. Dry the bush for a week or two until brittle then break off the pods. Wash off any clinging dirt and air-dry for a couple of weeks.
You can eat the delicious, fresh raw peanuts straight away if you like, and if there are any left you can roast them at 160-180°C in an oven for 15-20 minutes for shelled kernels or 20-25 minutes for peanuts still in the shell.
how to plant
Before planting add some fertiliser and a sprinkling of lime into the soil and mix both in well. Peanut plants like loose, well-drained soil, so make a mound and plant the seedlings on top. Plant the seedlings as you would any seedlings, spacing them 45cm apart. Water in well after planting.
how peanuts form – cool!
Peanuts are fascinating plants. As they grow, they form a bushy plant 45cm high and wide. Small yellow flowers are produced over summer, and as they die off the stalks (or pegs) elongate and grow downwards, pushing themselves into the soil. This is where the nuts and shells begin to form. Your job as a gardener is to keep up the water supply as the nuts develop, as peanut plants need to be kept well-watered right up to harvest time.
ideal climate
Native to Peru, Brazil and Bolivia, peanuts (Arachis hypogaea) are commercially grown in Australia in Qld in the Atherton Tablelands and processed in Kingaroy (the peanut capital). You can grow them at home, provided you live in a warm climate, or in cooler areas where the growing season is long enough (around 120 days) for the plants to set flowers.