Hazelnut - Historical Cultivation

Historical Cultivation

In 1995, evidence of large-scale Mesolithic nut processing, some 9,000 years old, was found in a midden pit on the island of Colonsay in Scotland. The evidence consists of a large, shallow pit full of the remains of hundreds of thousands of burned hazelnut shells. Hazelnuts have been found on other Mesolithic sites, but rarely in such quantities or concentrated in one pit. The nuts were radiocarbon dated to 7720+/-110BP, which calibrates to circa 7000 BC. Similar sites in Britain are known only at Farnham in Surrey and Cass ny Hawin on the Isle of Man. See also Sruwaddacon Bay, Kilcommon, Erris, County Mayo, Ireland.

This discovery gives an insight into communal activity and planning in the period. The nuts were harvested in a single year, and pollen analysis suggests the hazel trees were all cut down at the same time. The scale of the activity, unparalleled elsewhere in Scotland, and the lack of large game on the island, suggest the possibility that Colonsay contained a community with a largely vegetarian diet for the time they spent on the island. The pit was originally on a beach close to the shore, and was associated with two smaller, stone-lined pits, whose function remains obscure, a hearth, and a second cluster of pits.

Because hazelnuts do not generally need to be toasted, indeed Kentish Cobnuts are still traditionally sold fresh, it has been speculated this was done to make them more digestible for children. Toasting the nuts also was thought to increase how long they would keep, and they have historically been a useful food for mariners because they keep well.

Hazel has been grown historically in coppices for use in wattle and daub buildings, and in hedges. The Romans cultivated hazelnuts including in Britain, although there is no evidence that they spread specific cultivars. Cultivated varieties have been grown since at least the 16th century, with a great increase in varieties during the 1800s; in particular, the first really widespread cultivar, the Kentish Cobnut, was introduced in 1830.

The traditional method to increase nut production is called 'brutting', which involves prompting more of the trees' energy to go into flower bud production, by snapping but not breaking off the tips of the new year's shoots six or seven leaf groups from the join with the trunk or branch, at the end of the growing season. The traditional term for an area of cultivated hazelnuts is a plat.