In case you were wondering what happened to this effort; a couple things happened.  We won the vote in the Forestry and Agriculture section of this MIT competition; so we're going to be traveling to MIT Nov. 6-8 for their big Conference; we'll be featured on Thursday as one of the "winners".

Here is the short (just over 3 min) video they require of winners:

Planning trips and stops at this point.

This just in from Brandon; currently in the Illinois hazel field:


Hello folks,

Weather is excellent so we are husking/cleaning today and will be able to direct hand picking at the Illinois farm near Elizabeth today and tomorrow morning. Give me (Brandon) a ring at 507-226-7207 if you're interested!



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What we're offering for the first time this year is a chance for folks interested in the hazel crop to pick hazels from, specifically, the bushes that the machine refused to pick.  Nuts still retained on the bushes at this point are an excellent bet for good bushes specifically for hand-picking situations; which will be the case for many folks forever.

Come (call the phone #) we'll teach you how to pick; how to recognize a "good bush" - and you will leave with- half the nuts you picked.  Eat them; sell them or plant them- your choice.  And we'll use them to start splitting the genetics for hand-picked hazels and machine-picked hazels; we'll maintain both.

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