American hazelnuts

Hazelnuts are just starting to fall in MO. I like to pick them before they fall on the ground.

Wow, mine are falling up here in Northern Wisconsin as well.  I've been picking them for a couple weeks now to beat the chipmunks to them.  I'm surprised that our bushes are on the same schedule as yours despite our different latitudes...

That is surprising. It even sounds like yours are a little ahead of mine. They do vary a lot from bush to bush. Are yours in full sun? Mine have afternoon shade.

These are wild ones from many different bushes.  I guess by "falling" I mean that when I pull one off, others will drop off very easily.  Based on that and some chipmunk eaten ones on the ground, I'm assuming some have fallen already.  The bushes I was picking off of this week were in full sun, others I've been picking on have been about 50% sun.  I'm going to check another area tomorrow, hopefully there are still some there.  

So far this season I've picked 50 gallons of nuts (in the husk) over the course of the last 2.5 weeks.  I'm trying to figure out how early I can pick them and still get a good nut.

I only have 5 gallons from 3 bushes I planted in my yard. They are natives, but I haven't seen a feral bush in many years.

Are yours still in the buckets? They might get moldy.  Mine are spread out on the table under a ceiling fan. Not sure what I'd do if I had 50 gallons.

Do you know a good way to husk them?

How do you shell them? I have sheller, but haven't used it yet. I hope it works.

We have so many feral bushes here it is awesome.  No other nut trees to speak of but we have hazelnuts.  This is my first year harvesting so I don't have the hulling/shelling fully figured out yet.  But I did lay them out to dry in a sunny room.  They are browning up nicely and it looks like the nuts will pop out pretty easily.  I'll probably shell them with a simple nut cracker and if it goes well I'll maybe make a double roller set-up to pinch them between.  Or something creative.