Hello folks,
It's late, I know! We did just get most of our outstanding nut orders shipped today, and although we expect to sell out by Christmas we do have a few left that you can snatch up, if you haven't already. We thought we should let you know:
DATES:
If you make your e-mail order by 5 PM Monday, and you made it early enough that there are still nuts left, we should be able to get it shipped on Tuesday for Christmas delivery via our standard nut shipping (that is, at least, according to USPS). Barring, of course, further blizzards.
What we've got available:
FIRST TIME: BADGERSETT HYBRID HICKORIES! These look mostly like shagbark or shellbark hickories, but the shells are thin enough to crack with a hand cracker! Most nuts taste like premium pecan, some will have a good real hickory taste, and some will even taste like black walnut. Limited supply, and in 1-pound bags only. NOTE: though they'll crack with a hand cracker, you'll want a nut pick.
We still have Orchard Sampler, Large, and Old Fashion chestnuts here and ready to ship, though this year's Old Fashion is nearly gone.
We are shipping hazels (and now offer a smaller 1-lb sampler), but keep in mind that hazels on your order may still slow delivery. Employee sickness has slowed down our husking in the past week.
Order nuts here: http://www.badgersett.com/nuts/ordernuts.html
Check out some updated chestnut plier peeling method videos here: http://badgersettresearch.blogspot.com/2010/12/updated-chestnut-peeling-video.html
As Dad observed in a recent press release, "It sounds so simple it can seem silly- but it’s actually the difference between an easy happy experience, and yet another path to Holiday Hell."
And see our nut recipes here, including gluten-free stuffing: http://www.badgersett.com/info/recipes.html
(and a quick note about plants: we have a good supply of chestnuts and hazels for 2011 delivery still, however we are SOLD OUT of Select material, and Guaranteed XL. More than usual of our material this year is classed Experimental, since for the first time we'll be selling seedlings of Cycle 4 material. More advanced genetics, and better nut quality, but "Experimental" because we don't have the long track record we require for our EFB-guaranteed material.)
Happy Holidays from Badgersett!
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Thanks for the hybrid hickories!!! They went into a standard Betty Crocker recipe that came out very well! I was very appreciative of the fact that these nuts are hand-crackable - but it was still a lot of work to get the nutmeats out... How long (generations/years) before you have the genetics in place to let the nutmeats fall out?
ReplyDeleteEric
Eric- good to know. :-)
ReplyDeleteYou're right, it's still work to get the nutmeats out after cracking. There are a few of the first cycle hickories that come out easy; but they're overmatched by the number where even after drying the nutmeat fills the space so solidly they either crush during cracking, or adhere tightly to the convolutions of the shell. Super meat to shell ratios; but lousy cracking data.
You're absolutely right that we're already working on finding the genetics for hickory hybrids that are easier to get out.
One hope; we still have some 400 or so trees in the first cycle that haven't born nuts at all; due to being put on the back hill (and back burner) with no fertilization or grass control whatsoever for their first 20 years of life. They're getting fertilizer now, since we can see from the small test group (that did get care) that they're really worth looking at. It's not at all impossible that some of these will prove much easier to work with.
Otherwise; we're setting up to start Cycle 2 on the neohybridization program for the hickories; selecting the ones that test out the best from Cycle 1 to cross with each other. Planting the first one this year, we expect.
Hickory generation time is still running around 15 years though. We DO have several plants that came into production sooner than that; and we're crossing them, OF COURSE. :-)
Experience from other crops (chestnuts have a known track record in breeding for precocity, going back to pre-blight days) we can hope that the Cycle 2 stuff, bred for precocity, will cut 2-3 years off generation time in the first attempt.
But- we can't, yet, combine nut characters with precocity...
So. It might be better to cultivate the ancient custom of the family sitting 'round the fire, after dinner, singing songs or telling stories, as everyone cracks out and cleans hickory nuts to go in the fudge...
:-)