sutton023

Very quick post here, we're into urgent hand harvest TODAY; still some days before machine harvest will be sensible.  (See UPDATE below, also) Besides the hazel plants we sell, if you grow hazelnuts you got from Arbor Day, or "Wisconsin" - chances are over 90% you're actually growing Badgersett genetics; and there's something you need to know- today. Some Badgersett hazels - DO NOT TURN BROWN WHEN RIPE.  In particular, the G-029-N tissue culture clones will ripen when entirely white- then vanish as animals eat them while you wait.  We've found some seedlings in all breeding lines that share this characteristic, some of which obviously took their pollen from a G-029-N somewhere. These nuts are FULLY RIPE: Above is life size.  NOTE_ the husk are entirely green- the nuts are white (actually a very pale but genuine green color). Quarter for scale- NOTE - all the nuts easily come cleanly out of their husks, "abcision" is complete, the nuts are no longer t...

Thanks to Lois Braun for the nudge that we'd neglected to post our observations on hazel ripening this year.  Sorry about that; I'd actually thought we had. Yes- the hazels are ripening well ahead of "normal" this year, due to the extreme heat, and likely also due to drought.  The drought here at Badgersett has been sufficiently severe that we have immediate neighbors whose corn is looking like a dead loss; maybe salvageable as silage, but no grain; but the hazels, chestnuts, and hickory/pecans are just unaffected (vegetatively) by it. The hazels ARE getting ripe early, though; and some of them are ripening this year before the nuts turn fully brown.  I've seen that happen both in hazels and chestnuts, in years with varying kinds of stress; "color" is not as important as other factors, apparently; and nuts may be fully ripe and separated from the tree long before they turn the colors you expect. The critters, however, know perfectly well when they are re...

We've got an article posted today on The Oil Drum , where we address Woody Ag and energy production more completely than has been available in print before. For those of you who made it to Philip Rutter's talk at the International Biomass Conference in Denver earlier this year, this article started with that talk as a framework.  Welcome new visitors, and if you haven't visited that site, go on over and take a look at  The Oil Drum . Also of import, the field day page has been updated with a tentative schedule and tour info.  New this year: a completely harvest-oriented tour, and of course a demonstration of the mechanical harvester . Our hazels have a very serious crop set this year; come and see a little bit of what they can do!

Actual details coming in the next couple of days, but here's your first reminder that our annual field day is on August 18. In poetic form, by our secretary Sara West: You're invited to the Annual Badgersett Field Day A chance to come learn and play With friends old and new And bring the family too! There will be tours of the farm That will cause little harm We'll have plants available Have lunch at a picnic table So come one and come all To the kickoff event of the fall We know it's a bit early But we need to beat the squirrelly's

The First Minnesota Machine Harvest of hazels went well; we estimate about 20 hard-core hazel growers came to see and investigate, as well as neighbors and folks who were "just interested. As we use the machine to pick here on Badgersett Farm itself, it dawns on us more and more- the world has changed. We will certainly be harvesting twice as many hazelnuts this year as last; at least, even with many nuts still left on bushes that refuse to be picked. Part of what that means is- all the other machines needed, huskers, cleaners, etc; are now an order of magnitude too slow. We did also get great TV coverage from our Rochester Minnesota NBC affiliate, KTTC. I couldn't figure out how to embed the video here, so the link will have to do. Meanwhile- the other two neohybrid nut crops we work on are just in the early stages of ripeness; and chestnut harvest, and hybrid hickory harvest, are looming. Hazel harvest is NOT finished, meanwhile; we will be machine picking our field...

This is the official press release we're sending out- if YOU would like to send it on; please do! The photos included here on the blog MAY be good enough for publication; but I never really know what Blogger will do with the pics next. If they're not; email us; and we'll email you publication quality files. Press Release - 9/20/2011 - For Immediate Release Attention: TV, Print, Electronic, & Radio Badgersett Research Corporation: 18606 Deer Rd, Canton, MN USA 55922 phone (888) 557-4211 email: philip.rutter@badgersett.com web: badgersett.com FIRST MINNESOTA MACHINE HARVEST OF NEW CROP - Sep 22nd Hybrid Bush Hazels Can Out-Produce Soybeans keywords: Sustainable Agriculture, Hazelnuts, Soybean Replacement, Machinable Crop, The Public and Press are invited to attend and observe the First Machine Harvest in Minnesota of a highly promising new crop; hybrid bush hazelnuts. The machine will be working where visitors can watch up close and personal this Thursday, Septem...

Better in fact than I'd hoped. Though it will need some modifications on the nut/cluster handling/cleaning eventually- right now, it will let you pick a big field. Perfect? No. Just- way better than the slow hand picking process. We had two farmers, a PhD engineer, and a professional machinist studying the machine end of it, and two farmers and two biologists studying the plants- and animal end of it. stick insect, picked out of harvest bag, after going through the machine Yesterday was shakedown; we found several ways to do it wrong , but also how to do it right. Today is our first attempt at full day work. We're not sure we can get all the bushes picked in the time available- it's a big field; but we're going to try. Some of the bushes are not ripe yet - of course- and we may bring the machine back to this field in a couple weeks, to re-pick. We'll see. bushes coming out bushes going in cluster bearing twigs; picked clean picking an easy row; Brandon drivi...

To our surprise and delight, we find that Badgersett Research Corp is going to be harvesting neohybrid hazelnuts by machine, the very first time this has been done anywhere - this week. Thursday, Sept. 15th, to be exact, if present plans stay on track. That will be the first day; we plan many more to follow. First harvest will take place on the Illinois hazel field we picked by hand last year; after several days there, the machine will come to Badgersett Farm #1, in Minnesota; picking in MN will be Sept. 20, 21, 22; press event to be set. (Yes, we did pick a few some years ago , from the Badgersett hazel field at Arbor Day Farm, but that was just a demo/trial, not a real harvest. This is- real harvest.) The machine is an older model self-propelled BEI blueberry picking machine, purchased in Michigan, by hazel growers and close friends who wish to remain entirely anonymous. And while Badgersett does not own this machine, we nonetheless have exclusive use of it for 2011, and wi...

Hazel grower Don Price called us this morning to let us know that he will be bringing a harvest processing tool he's been working on with him; and we'll set it up and run it. Don's been working with rebuilding and adapting what used to be a standard tool for all farms, a fanning mill . He started working with one at least 3 years ago, and provided one for us to play with here at Badgersett, too. We haven't had the time we've wanted, to work with the really excellent machine he brought us; but he's done some tinkering with his, and has been using it to clean (at least) his hazel nuts. It's likely that with a bit of remodeling, these things can be made to size nuts, also; and remove blanks and lightweights. It'll be here, set up and demonstrating, for the Field Day. Item 2; Sue Wiegrefe has been systematically collecting data on soil pH in a variety of our hazel plantings, with known fertilization/lime treatments. And- we've got results t...

We arranged to demonstrate machine picking of neohybrid hazelnuts 9 years ago. I'm astonished it's been so long. The entire world has changed, in the meantime; for one thing, the machine company we dealt with, BEI, Inc; has been sold. 9 years ago, I'd been talking to their founder and president, Butch Greiffendorf, for 15 years already. He was an enthusiast for the hazels, and came to one of our Annual Field Days, to see the crop for himself, and meet potential growers. But he sold the company, the rascal, a year or so before I called BEI to arrange a trial, on the 9 acres of Badgersett hazels at Arbor Day Farm. Enough enthusiasm survived that the trial did happen. We're trying to arrange real machine picking, now, this year; and so far it's been an uphill battle. These are harder economic times, of course. The Illinois planting we featured here is loaded, and really needs a machine. I of course made a video of the picking trial; but it wasn't ea...

(click on photo for bigger views) Badgersett Research Farm 20th Annual Field Day: Saturday, August 20th If you want to learn about growing hazelnuts in the Midwest; it makes sense to go and see where it's been done the longest. That would be us, we're at 32 years, and counting. No other grower or researcher has production rows like ours. We're making a concerted effort to expand our Field Day event this year; we're inviting quite a few other folks to bring what they have to show and sell, and set up booths in the chestnut rows, where we can guarantee good shade. Stay tuned to this blog, where we'll be announcing the specifics as we have them. We're inviting hazel growers, graziers, wool spinners, wood carvers- anyone who makes a living, or wants to, from sustainable farming and integrated woody crops. And our Amish neighbors will be here, of course. Plus- in a change from the past few years, we WILL have plants available for sale this Field Day; hazel, ...

Here's the very quick skinny on how the hazelnut harvest went at the Illinois planting: really good; considering. Sorry to say Dr. Brandon has all the photos at the moment, and he's up to his neck in the regular alligators; and I'm in Virginia. Details: alas, only about 20% of the nuts we saw in mid-August were still on the bushes when we arrived Sept. 4. Three factors; we'd had several days of very high winds just before (the kind that blows semis off roads); deer had been eating a couple specific breeding-lines of the hazels far more intensively than we'd ever seen before, and there were more tree squirrels in the plantings than we'd expected (gray squirrels, is what we saw). We did pick up a fair number of good nuts from the ground, but only a tiny fraction of what had been blown off, of course. Sept. 4 is extremely late to start harvest, of course, so this was not entirely unanticipated. We kept hoping a machine would materialize, which made us pu...