Hazelnuts - Wild Harvest Edible

[Watchman]

The closest I come to playing sports is foraging for hazelnuts. I tend to go belly-up at the whiff of competition, but everything in my DNA wants hazelnuts and wants them badly enough to stand my ground in the thicket even though every other animal there wants them, too. Squirrels, chipmunks, deer, birds, bears—the competition is formidable and frenzied.

Hazelnuts are such a coveted food that we all show up at the same time to stake our claim. It always feels so tenuous, like it could devolve into bloodsport at any moment, but we all just pick, giving each other the side-eye, in a surreal kind of interspecies armistice. I’m still an underdog, but I manage to sneak off with a basketful most years. Here are a few tricks I’ve learned if you dare enter the arena. READ FULL ARTICLE HERE