A few years ago, a group called Out of your Tree was formed in the city. Its purpose is to make sure all fruit from local trees are harvested. Many people have fruit trees in their yards but never pick the fruit themselves, which means that it falls to the ground and attracts wasps - a lose, lose situation. There are also lots of fruit trees on city land, and usually they don't get picked either. Probably people assume that you can't pick them because they are city trees. Out of your Tree has done a lot of research, and discovered that it's permissible to harvest from city trees, which is great! So through this site, and their facebook page, arrangements are made to pick city and personal trees - 1/3 goes to the owner of the tree (should they want it), 1/3 is donated, 1/3 is for the fruit picker.
I put a random post on the Out of your Tree facebook page indicating that I would be interested in any extra apricots or hazelnuts. I was excited when someone responded saying that she would let me have some hazelnuts from the bush in her yard. I assumed that I would be picking, but she had done the harvesting and handed me a small bag.
The hazelnuts are small, which I remembered from when I was a kid, so probably it's a bush of the wild variety. One the left, you see what they look on the bush. They are encased in a fuzzy covering which is easier to remove when the covering is dry. One thing I'd forgotten was that the fuzzy covering is prickly, and sticks in your skin like tiny thorns. Next time I would wear gloves when I peel the covering off. The uncovered hazelnuts in shell are about 1/2" wide. They need to dry a bit more, but when they are ready, I'll have to think of a special way to use them - definitely with chocolate. Maybe hazelnut bark?
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