First; look at this video. It'll take a few minutes. The first 30 seconds or so of film show UNfertilized row; after that (when the bushes get big and green) the rows were fertilized.
That is our Badgersett Research Corporation expansion farm in Illinois.
You are looking at some 3-4 miles of harvestable hazel bushes; with a substantial crop ripe; right now today.
So far, both BEI and Korvan have failed to respond to our repeated requests for a picking machine, to start working on real machine development (in spite of our offer to pay up to $3k in costs).
We will be picking these rows by hand; on Sept. 2/3/and 4. All day; fast; all the people we can get. Almost everyone there will be volunteers.
We're expecting to harvest up to 2 tons of dry nuts; perhaps more. These will finally give us the nuts needed to work seriously on cracking/sorting etc. machines. We're hoping Lee Pothast will be working on this harvest to develop his husker further.
If you want to see what a real hazel harvest is supposed to look like; of nuts at commercial potential today (no 20 years from now) - you should come; volunteer; camp overnight, and help get this incredibly historic harvest in. This is it. The first real full scale harvest of neohybrid hazels.
Be aware; the nuts in this field are 10X better than yours. Or the ones you've seen at Badgersett. They represent the cutting edge of our breeding work (as of 2003). So they are 15-20 years beyond anything at Arbor Day Farm, for example; which contained no cutting edge material, even at the time it was planted.
Bring anyone you want who wants to help; but note; this is a restricted private research site; belonging to Badgersett; persons representing competitors or researchers from other entities are BARRED from attending this event. The owner does not want the site public; if you are coming, we'll arrange to meet groups in a town in NW Illinois, and then guide you to the farm.
More info will follow here; if you can come; comment here with your email for more info; or call our new corporate toll free number, 888-557-4211, and leave your info.
Now- look at that video again.
WOW!!! This looks awesome! I truly wish that I could be there - life gets in the way, though... Perhaps you could reach out to some professional pickers?
ReplyDeleteEric
Eric- I wish we could find some pros. Problem is: time is very short; the region is devoid of picker oriented crops; and places for pickers to camp/stay are very few... We'll be prepared ahead of time next year, believe me. :-)
ReplyDeletecount me in. paronsheim@gmail.com
ReplyDeleteI'm planning on coming...can you send info to paronsheim@gmail.com
ReplyDeleteDATES: are actually Friday, Saturday, Sunday. September 3-4-5.
ReplyDeleteAM INTERESTED IN PICKING HAZELS IN ELIZABETH IF SOME ONE ELSE CAN SPLIT GAS AND DRIVING EFFORTS.
ReplyDeleteCAN ALSO HAVE A PICKUP TO HAUL HAZELS BACK IF THAT MAKES SENSE.
ANY ONE INTERESTED?
DON PRICE
NORTHFIELD MN.
507 645 4653 PRICE4653@MSN.COM
would like to help with the picking, but need to know where and when we meet. paronsheim@gmail.com
ReplyDeleteHi, folks; right this minute we're running behind on getting back to folks with information; this will change this afternoon. Primary reason; two herding dogs are getting spayed right now; lots of travel involved...
ReplyDelete