The total production yield is 2,800 marketable pounds per acre. Only after the EFB fungus crept into southwestern Washington in the 1960s and, later, into Oregon's Willamette Valley, did the Great American Hazelnut Hunt really begin. Hazelnut trees of the Yamhill and Jefferson varieties are resistant to blight and cold and produce a superior nut for roasting. Each design is comprised of three compatible male and female hazel varieties, but multiple pollinator varieties can be used.
And that competition is serious, given the size of the global hazelnut market and its potential growth in North America. It is not surprising then that, over the past 100 years, several plant botanists have tried to develop better-adapted and disease-resistant hazelnuts for the eastern United States by combining the best of Corylus americana with Corylus avellana. It produces 3 to 4% of that crop, and Americans only eat 8 ounces of hazelnuts a year, compared to 4.4 pounds for a European. Finally, leftover hazelnuts can be ground to obtain a high-quality, gluten-free meal for humans or animals.
However, the company has to buy more than 90 percent of its hazelnuts in Europe, because, since colonial times, American attempts to grow enough hazelnuts to compete with European production have failed miserably. The goal of the UMHDI is to develop hazelnut germplasm that is acclimated to the growing conditions of the Upper Midwest and with a predictable yield that can support profitable commercial production. Hovel planted hazelnuts along with blueberries and evergreens on 6 acres of a 40-acre mountainous field. Hybrid hazelnuts (native hazelnuts crossed with European hazelnuts) are at the heart of their work.
In the case of hazelnuts, Earthgen's EMIPP will gain a 4-year advantage to achieve maximum yield and will reduce the financial break-even point from 8 to 4 years. Hazelnuts won because, on the one hand, labor needs seemed more compatible with the family's work of producing dairy products and growing 1,400 acres of corn, soybeans, alfalfa, winter wheat and a cover crop of rye as fodder. The image on the right is an ideal acre design for a hazelnut plantation, easy to implement due to the ease of tiling the design and the main thing to keep in mind is that this makes it easier to harvest.
