Next year……next year!…..I am going to find out beforehand how to harvest hazelnuts alongside the squirrels and store them until they ripen (the nuts, that is, although storing the squirrels until the nuts are all harvested – by me! – also crosses my mind) and then delight in eating hazelnuts from the two trees in the garden.
This year I noticed the squirrels were very busy taking the nuts away when they were still green. It finally occurred to me that they knew what they were doing so I collected a few green ones and sure enough, they did turn brown. However only one, when cracked open, had a nice sized nut. The rest were shrivelled and small. But oh was that single nut wonderful – sweet and tasty. It must have to do with timing, either collecting or storing or both. Next year…..