Inge Leonora-den Ouden

Barbara Simoes wrote:I am new to hazelnuts.  I have four bushes out back, and last year was the first nut-bearing year for two of the plants.  I read everything I could get my hands on and watched many videos to boot.  I learned that I should wait until I can move the nut inside the papery wrapping.  Once I can do that it's ripe enough.  Then, I could pull off the clusters and separate the nuts from their wrapping.  From there I just put the nuts in a bowl to have when I wanted some.  I probably only got about two cups of nuts, but they all were full and delicious.  I ate the last of them in early June and they were just fine.  
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For me this year will be the first year with a few hazelnuts. When I first rented that allotment garden a few years ago, the small young tree was there already. But now I saw some nuts growing. This week I'll try some if they are ripe (as you describe: if they can be separated from their wrapping).

Jay Angler wrote:I have no idea how to pick them for storing, but I suggest the most likely harvester is a squirrel, but recently, I've had evidence of rats climbing trees to harvest also.

This definitely needs more research in the Pacific North Wet, as one year when I thought I was picking them properly, when I dried and then tried to open them late in the fall, they were all empty.

Thanks for the warning. I don't think there are squirrels at the allotment garden, where my hazelnut tree is, but there are rats! I never thought of rats climbing trees, but of course they can (they climb in ships, buildings, etc.)

Edit to add: there are crows and (European) jays here too ...

Does the pigeon/dove look like this one?


This is a bred (cultivated?) variety.
The one on the photo is reported as 'missing', but I don't think it felw all the way from the Netherlands to Canada ;-)

In Dutch both a 'pigeon' and a 'dove' are called 'duif'. There are different species here, with different names: rotsduif (rots=rock), holenduif (holen=caves), houtduif (hout=wood), tortelduif (it makes a sound like trrrr).

Chance Lunceford wrote:...

I just did this, and took some photos. See below:

I am very interested to see how this goes on! I never tried this. I only duplicated strawberry plants by using the runners.

Okay, this is off-topic, but I wanted to add this photo to my post here.
This is what the weather here looks today (August 5th, 2026). After some days of very sunny weather, the normal clouds are returning...

Ac Baker wrote:Thank you. PFAF.org is definitely a go-to mine of useful information.

ETA: Being in central England, we've been sort-of equivalent to Zone 8 but not quite. Frost is rarer and very rarely colder than -10 C. These days, our average last frost is around mid-May.  Our average first frost is late Oct or Nov.  Our summers are now a lot hotter, frequently reaching 30-40 C.

Still, this list of Perennial Vegetables, particularly in my case the section for for Zone 8, is a useful find from that other thread: https://www.epicgardening.com/perennial-vegetables/

I think European climates are not comparable to North-American climate zones. Especially close to the North-western coast of Europe (Ireland, UK, Iceland?, Norway, Denmark, Netherlands, Belgium) there's the influence of the Gulf Stream (or 'Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation').

The result: higher winter temperatures than at the same latitude in North-America. But I think here (UK, NL, etc.) it rains more often than in the climate zone with comparable temperatures (about zone 8). When I read about the first and last frost date, they are very different too. Dutch gardeners always say: there can be frost until half May. So we plant our tomatoes, courgettes, a.a. in the garden after May 15th. That's a later date than mentioned in the official info on zone 8. And I remember very well I had a frosty night in September when I was camping once ... So frost is possible for more months ... but that frost is only a few degrees 'below zero' (Celsius). Winter here in general is only around that 'zero' point.

High temperatures, yes this year has some extremes. In 2019 there were some days of 40 C too. It might have something to do with 'el nino'. Or it's 'climate change'...

Interesting. I never heard this before. But it might be an explanation why the green beans I planted did not succeed (only one of them has grown out to be a plant, with a few beans): there was garlic in the same bed. Very close in distance and partly overlapping in time.

It's the season for road side stands!
Here are some from my region in the Netherlands.

Vegetables, jams and eggs (from free-roaming chickens)

 
'grandma's jams'


for the lovers of jam!

Mark Wyborny wrote:There really isn't a native anything. To lable and exterminate every living thing that doesn't stay where it is at a certain time period of your choosing as invasive/ noxious is certain extinction for all. The Earth is ever-changing and all subspecies are created by free movement. Ecological diversity is extremely important to the health of earthling lifeforms.  I totally agree 100 %. The New Wild by Fred Pearce is an awesome educational book on that topic without any useless filler.

I agree. Nature (and everything) is constantly changing. But that natural change goes very, very slowly. It takes thousands of years.

The problem nowadays is that people import certain species (plants, but also animals). They don't arrive in a natural way, by 'free movement', but they come suddenly.