cob nuts?

[pete23]

ello, had a sudden stop in a gate way yesterday, and spotted this tree loaded with what I (think) are cob nuts??

 

remember picking them was I was a kid.

 

how long do you recon for them to ripen properly? if no other bugger has spotted them I shall go back and have a harvest.

 

name of tree???

 

cheers pete.

[Andrew Gale]

Hazel or its scientific name of Corylus avellana. Not sure how long you'll need to keep them for before eating but you'd better get in quick or else the squirrels will have the lot; or dormice if you're lucky to live in an area where still around.

[peatff]

Eat them while they are still green, much sweeter then when they are dried out and brown.

[pete23]

cheers, thought it was hazel, but wernt sure.

 

so is cob nuts a local name for hazel nut??

[pete23]

Eat them while they are still green, much sweeter then when they are dried out and brown.

 

cheers, so could it them now or a week or so??

[agg221]

The skirts will start to go yellow when they are ripe, and if you shake the tree they will fall. By this point, the squirrels will probably have had the lot! That said, we always used to pick few bushels and didn't shoot enough squirrels to make a difference, there should still be some left.

 

FWIW, these would be cobnuts rather than filberts, as the skirt doesn't cover the whole nut, but the variety Kent Cob is actually a filbert!

 

Alec

[Macpherson]

Hi, a great coincidence yet again, just picked some of these today, now I know what to do with them, thanks. The nuts are all in clumps of 5 though and the tree`s heavy with them. I`m almost sure that this is the first time this tree has produced a crop, it`s more of a proper tree rather than all of the rest of the scrubby hazel that`s in the same very overgrown hedge, aye, back in the morning before the squirrels:biggrin:

[farmer rod]

Down in Kent plantations of cob nuts are called Platts, the cob nut is longer and larger than the hazel and there are several recognized varieties and growing them has had a resurgence in recent years due to more interest in local food etc, and the hard work done by people persuading our European brethren that a nut can be sold with the husk on, as is the tradition with cobs. They do not store very well, but if fully ripe you can put them in a tin in the ground and the are ok at Christmas. (None in my possession ever last more than a day or so)

[meteorquake]

Sometimes it's good to let the squirrels get them... if you know where they're stashing them. I was down in Essex end of June, and I found several neat piles, of about 500 nuts, I'm sure it wasn't the deer. A portion of them (leaving Mr Squirrel plenty) certainly helped my tenting about! d