A little chilly-

So far, we're having a "normal Minnesota" winter here.  Which includes this:

Yep, that says "21 below" - F, not C.  Oh, and 41 - inside, overnight.  Chances are, in lower elevations on the farm, it was colder than that last night.

Our "test winters" are typically at 40 below F; it's been over 10 years since it got that cold.  But this is the second time we've hit 20 below in December, which is a bit unusual; and the coldest part of winter is yet to come.  We'll see.  At the moment, the jet stream is "stuck" with an abnormally deep loop- bringing us air from west central Canada; the "Alberta Clipper."  I'll be surprised if we don't see 30 below; and not surprised if we see 40 below this winter.

This does mean we're a bit "hunkered down" here- it takes more firewood, cutting, hauling, stoking - to keep the computers from freezing up.  Slows things down a bit.

Meanwhile- best of everything for the New Year; from everyone here.

The future markets for nut crops

This is old news for those of us in the nut business; but nuts are HEALTHY- and that message is being very solidly delivered to the public by study after study.

The most recent one comes from two of the most highly respected long term health tracking studies in the world, the "Nurses Health Study" and the "Health Professionals Follow-up Study" - which together track ~119,000 men and women, over some 30 years.  It's in the NEJM and is also reported on here in plain English, in The New York Times.  And Carl Albers recently emailed me this article, which refers to the same NEJM study (thanks, Carl!)  And we covered the previous "big new!" article on this topic, from March 2012, right here.

Cutting to the chase- the more nuts people eat; the better for them; in every way they can measure; including such things as death from cancer and heart disease.

The scientists and doctors are mostly bickering about which causal factors are most important at this  point; not whether the data reflect reality; the benefits are solidly accepted.

So- one more factor indicating an increasing market for nut products.

It's worth noting that chestnuts are not included in any of the tests so far.  So far as I know, no researchers have stated their reasons for excluding chestnuts from the studies; but I expect it is due to two factors; 1) chestnuts are very low fat, unlike all the other nuts in the studies, and 2) chestnuts have not been available for easy "snacking" throughout the year as all the other nuts are.

My own opinion is that #2 is due to lack of snack-consumer friendly chestnut products, and also a pure lack of chestnut crop availability.  We can hope to change both of those factors.  Our new "chestnut polenta" provides a highly adaptable starting point for "snacks"; the chestnut ginger snaps and polenta crackers we've made were raved over by our test subjects; and the polenta will be very easy to commercialize.

Health researchers need to be alerted - to the possibility that although chestnut is low fat, if may nonetheless have health benefits similar to other nuts.  The evidence for that speculation comes from the pork industry; multiple sources report this same, very intriguing, fact: swine fed on chestnuts - and/or acorns - produce lard that is considerably less saturated than the lard from those fattened on maize; to the point the rendered product may be liquid at room temperature.  While far from absolute; most health professionals expect that less saturated fats are better for health and highly saturated fats.

Perhaps if eating chestnuts makes for polyunsaturated pigs- it might also make for polyunsaturated people.  It really needs to be investigated; if any readers are in contact with researchers who might be interested, please have them get in touch with us- we have chestnut product available for testing, and we've got plenty of experimental designs to suggest; this  has been on our radar for a very long time.

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.

Updates are faster these days on  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/badgersettresearch

HAZEL RIPENING ALERT!!

Very quick post here, we're into urgent hand harvest TODAY; still some days before machine harvest will be sensible.  (See UPDATE below, also)

Besides the hazel plants we sell, if you grow hazelnuts you got from Arbor Day, or "Wisconsin" - chances are over 90% you're actually growing Badgersett genetics; and there's something you need to know- today.

Some Badgersett hazels - DO NOT TURN BROWN WHEN RIPE.  In particular, the G-029-N tissue culture clones will ripen when entirely white- then vanish as animals eat them while you wait.  We've found some seedlings in all breeding lines that share this characteristic, some of which obviously took their pollen from a G-029-N somewhere.

These nuts are FULLY RIPE:

Above is life size.  NOTE_ the husk are entirely green- the nuts are white (actually a very pale but genuine green color).

Quarter for scale- NOTE - all the nuts easily come cleanly out of their husks, "abcision" is complete, the nuts are no longer taking resources from the plant.

And yes; these nuts are completely "filled", big enough for any commercial market, and with near zero pellicle fiber.

At the recent meeting of the New York Nut Growers, the Zarnowski's G-029-N clones were possibly the best looking plants there.  Our own have looked pretty ratty all year, but that has not prevented them from bearing a very good crop.

CHECK YOUR PLANTS FOR RIPENESS DAILY starting NOW.  They are ripening extremely rapidly this year, the fastest I've ever seen them do it.  Hot days make it faster yet.

PICK QUICKLY- before the mice and birds catch on that they're ripe.  At the moment- the bluejays have not discovered that the fields have lots of ripe nuts YET - this is the pattern every year.  There is a "lull" in pest pressure at the beginning- but pest theft accelerates as the season progresses.

One of your best deterrents for bluejays and crows is simply human presence in the field.  They'll avoid you.   We tend to split our picking teams up for this very reason; it slows the thieves down.

Off to the field to pick, fast.  We have around 50 of these tissue culture clones in production; and hundreds of seedlings from this breeding direction.  Many of the seedlings are not ripe- yet.  But it will happen fast- keep your eyes peeled.

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UPDATE: at noon: Paranoia Is Good For You!

We have this particular clone planted in 5 different micro-climates here on Badgersett- specifically so we can measure differences.  Checking one of the more remote this morning- we were struck by how much smaller the crop was...  until it occurred to me to check for missing nuts.

You can SEE where nuts- and nut clusters - were, if you're trained, and you look.  In the current case- after counting the "empty stubs" - I'm guessing at least 50% of this outer planting - HAS ALREADY BEEN STOLEN.  They're gone- particularly the clusters, most nuts remaining are singletons.  This is a pattern we associate with CROWS.  Who are crazy smart- in case you haven't been keeping up with current research; it's now accepted by peer reviewed science that: crows are as smart as great apes; they remember YOUR face, from year to year, live for decades, and teach their young how to avoid you, and how to find food.  Give it a google.

IF Blogger is cooperating, this photo can show you 3 places where hazels, or hazel clusters, grew very recently- and were picked before I got there.  They typically leave a blunt clean scar at the tip of a twig- look, and you'll learn.  Pick a few, and look at what's left.  Then look before you pick...

Theft is already ahead of us- and it accelerates with the season.  I still don't see or hear jays- but the crows have learned to avoid us entirely, and steal as fast as they can.  Be aware!