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   Happy Dancing Turtle is looking for landowners interested in planting a new and exciting crop – hybrid hazelnuts. They will be seeking funding to help cover some of the cost of establishing the plantings, with the goal of establishing enough hazelnuts in the area to justify mechanical harvesting and dehusking equipment. The minimum size planting per property is approximately five acres, or 1600 plants. There will be a public meeting to discuss this project in more detail on Thursday, June 20 at Happy Dancing Turtle/Hunt Utilities Group Resilient Living Campus from 6:30 to 8 pm. Colin Cureton with the UMN Forever Green Program and Mike Lija with the American Hazelnut Company will be part of the meeting. For more information contact Jim Chamberlin at [email protected] or 218-587-2303.

   “As a perennial nut crop, something lacking in our region and climate, hazelnuts are a healthy and delicious source of protein and oil,” said Jim Chamberlin Conservation Outreach Specialist at Happy Dancing Turtle. Jim and his wife, Audra, are growing hazelnuts at Island Lake Farm near Deerwood. In the Upper Midwest, hybrid hazelnuts are typically grown in hedgerows to facilitate mechanical harvesting, and often promoted in an “alley cropping” system, where hedgerows are spaced wide enough apart to facilitate growing forage, hay, or crops between them.

   “When planted on contour, these deep-rooted perennial plants reduce soil erosion and absorb excess nutrients from shallow groundwater. And, as a long-lived species with a fibrous root system, they are well suited to windbreaks, riparian buffers, and farmstead shelterbelts, and provide habitat for birds, pollinators, and other wildlife,” said Jim, detailing some of the benefits of the crop. “Finally, once established, they have the potential to be a low input food crop that can capture carbon in the soil and help to diversify farm income.”

   Hazelnuts are a healthy source of protein with good market potential. They are often eaten raw or roasted as a snack food, used in baking, or as an ingredient in ice cream or salads. Oil from hazelnuts has nutritional qualities similar to olive oil, and it has a high flash-point making it a valuable culinary addition to the kitchen. Globally, there is strong market demand for hazelnuts, valued as a spreadable nut butter or as a chocolate covered confectionery, with demand far exceeding supply.

   American hazelnuts (Corylus americana Marshall) are native to the Midwest and are found in abundance in our forests and agricultural landscapes. These native plants have evolved to be resistant to the hazelnut disease, Eastern Filbert Blight (EFB), and have the cold-hardiness necessary to survive the harsh winters of Northern Minnesota. Since the early 1900s northern nut growers, breeders, and researchers have been actively crossing native hazelnuts with the larger-fruiting, thinner-shelled, European hazelnut (C. avellana), in an effort to combine the best traits of the two species.

   Midwest researchers, including the University of Minnesota and Central Lakes College, began working on improving hybrid hazelnut genetics in the 1990s. These past efforts have led to recent breakthroughs in identifying the best cultivars for production, putting hybrid hazelnuts on an exciting track to become the Upper Midwest’s first major agricultural nut crop.

   For almost two decades, the Upper Midwest Hazelnut Development Initiative (UMHDI), a collaboration of the Universities of Wisconsin and Minnesota, has been working to develop the supply chain for hybrid hazelnuts. They have identified several cultivars that have the potential to be economically profitable, producing around 1000 pounds of shelled nuts per acre, and they are working with the private sector to develop scale-able propagation methods. Viable mechanized harvesting and dehusking methods have been identified, and the American Hazelnut Company, a for profit grower cooperative, is buying in-shell hazelnuts or will process them for a fee.

   More information and resources on growing hazelnuts as well as more agroforestry practices can be found at https://happydancingturtle.org/agroforesty. With headquarters in Pine River, Minnesota, as well as a hub in the Driftless Region, Happy Dancing Turtle is a nonprofit dedicated to growing good stewards of the planet by providing education, programs, and experiences for youth and adults that inspire wonder and empower change. Learn more at happydancingturtle.org.

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