What's Happened to my Red Hazel?

 For reasons I don't understand, my Red Hazel bush (bought in a pot from a plant sale in May '22) which had put on good growth this year, has reverted to green. It had lovely red leaves right up until a couple of weeks ago but now just common green.

I googled and found this

If the weather is unfavourable to a particular plant, it may revert just to get a competitive advantage. Once the leaves revert to all green, the plant can increase its harvest of solar energy, which in turn gives it more fuel to produce bigger and stronger growth.

Below on the left  is how it looked after buying it last year.

Will it go back to red? That is the question.

Back Tomorrow

Sue

Ogham Tree Alphabet, August into September

Back again.

 On the new laptop and after a busy few days with visitors....Eldest Daughter, Eldest Grandson (6 and a bit) and Youngest Grandson (10 months).

 

Yes, the Computer shop set up the computer with a new search engine and I took my camera disc so they loaded that too as this lap top has nowhere for a CD - apparently they don't anymore. My old laptop had separate right/left click buttons - this one doesn't which confused me for a minute.

Then I had to track down passwords to put all my favourite things back for easy finding. It's nice to be able to type a row of words and actually having a space bar that makes a space between them - which recently my old laptop didn't always do.

Eldest daughter managed to find a way of loading photos from my new phone to this laptop, I'd tried everything to do it on the old laptop without success.

So all is well until the time comes that I need a new camera!

One of the months and letters of the alphabet that got missed when I had a year writing about the trees in the Ogham Tree Alphabet    through 2020/21 was The Hazel - standing for the letter C, the number 9 and ruling the 9th month from August into September.

 

 

In Irish Legend, Connla's well  was overhung by nine Hazel trees which contained all the knowledge of the arts and sciences to those who ate them (Connla was one of the Celtic Dieties in Irish Mythology).

 When nine nuts fell into the well they were eaten by a salmon, which developed nine spots as a symbol of the knowledge. The salmon was then cooked by Fionn, the son of the chief Druid's daughter for the Chief Druid to eat . Fionn was forbidden to eat the fish but when he burnt his thumb on the hot fish, he sucked it to ease the pain and stole the wisdom by accident.

From the book 'Discovering the Folklore of Plants' by Margaret Baker..............
The Celtic world treated hazel as a holy tree. Its nuts were connected with poetry, knowledge, love, fertility and childbirth. In the Scottish Highlands hazel was one of the nine sacred woods used in kindling needfire at Beltane. (Need-fire, or Wild-fire, a fire caused by friction is a term used in folklore to denote a superstition which survived in the Scottish Highlands until a recent date.)

 

Hazel Dowsing rods have long been used to find underground water. This was something that worked for Colin easily - yet never for me. 

 

 

I've been watering my new Red Hazel tree regularly but it still looks sad from lack of rain but too much heat. One day I hope it will be as huge as the one in BiL's garden. I gave a squirrel-sown seedling to Mum in Law way back in the late 90's and now the tree is a giant which Brother in Law moans about each year when he has to trim it back!

 Despite enjoying writing it was quite nice to have a short blogging break, posting 6 days every week can get quite time consuming. I've decided to cut down a little on blog time so sometimes I might say "Back Tomorrow" or I might say "Back in a While". 

This time I have something in drafts so.....................................

Back Tomorrow

Sue

 

Preserving the Hazelnuts

I have no idea if this will work and I'm sure it wasn't worth the effort but it seemed like a good idea at the time (which was several weeks ago) mainly because it's such a rare thing for the squirrels to leave hazelnuts long enough for them to ripen and fall off the tree.

I picked up all this lot and spent an age shelling them - lots were hollow

I ended up with just these

So I went and searched among the leaves on the ground picked up some more, took another age shelling them, added them to the tray and popped them all  in a cool oven for a couple of hours.

Then layered them in a jar with salt, something I have plenty of due to buying a gi-normous bag full from Approved Food  about 5 years ago.

The instructions came from the book I picked up at the book sale 'How to store your garden produce' by Piers Warren.

I'll keep them for a while to see what happens - edible or mouldy?


Back tomorrow
Sue

Hazelnuts (again)

Last year I did a whole post about Nutting Day and Hazelnuts - and lack of them due to squirrels.
It's HERE if you would like to re-read.

What I didn't find last year was this illustration from one of the books that I love and often use on the blog (The Illustrated Country Year  by Celia Lewis)
 

So if you spot any Hazelnuts on the ground that have been nibbled you know who to blame.

My Hazel in the garden is loaded this year, I've been picking a few to eat fresh, no sign of squirrels this year..............so far. I looked up storing them but they need to be ripe, trouble is then they fall off. I'm going to try roasting a few in their shells or maybe freezing them just to see what happens.


Thank you to everyone for lovely comments on Saturdays post. Because we didn't celebrate anniversaries only the children knew it would have been out 40th, and they were all working or away so it was a quiet day. But it was OK, all my days are quiet days now.


And latest news on the Branston Pickle............... Yes they do use caramel as a colouring, so homemade would never be so dark a colour as the factory made.

Back Tomorrow
Sue

Nuts, Whole Hazel Nuts

 Perhaps THIS year there will be enough Hazel nuts so that the squirrels will leave some for me

but I doubt it!

I wrote about Hazel nuts last year HERE.

Of course there is a Flower Fairy poem and illustration now I have the book.

So this is why I get no Hazel nuts.............because the Fairy give the squirrels first dibs..........and they are obviously greedier now than they were in the 1930s!

 And  more Hazels who aren't Nuts!...............my sister in law is called Hazel and is married to a Steven and I have a cousin called Hazel also married to a Stephen - but with a different spelling.


 Back Tomorrow
Sue

Nutting Day

Did you know September 3rd was traditionally known as Nutting Day? No, I didn't either, but came across this piece of information when I was looking through books for the September Days post on Saturday.
According to the book 'Cattern Cakes and Lace'.......this is the day on which children would traditionally go to the local wood to gather hazelnuts. All villages would have had local hazel coppices as the wood was so important for hurdles - no wire netting or electric fencing back then.

So what can I find out about hazelnuts (Corylus avellana).

From a little book called 'Nature in Your Basket' by Richard Mabey..............
Pollen deposits suggest that between the retreat of the glaciers and the arrival of mature forest some 9,000 years ago, hazel was the commonest tree across much of Britain, and it must have been one of the most important sources of vegetable food for Stone Age hunter gatherers.

 From the book 'Discovering the Folklore of Plants 'by Margaret Baker..............
The Celtic world treated hazel as a holy tree. Its nuts were connected with poetry, knowledge, love, fertility and childbirth. In the Scottish Highlands hazel was one of the nine sacred woods used in kindling needfire at Beltane. (Need-fire, or Wild-fire, a fire caused by friction is a term used in folklore to denote a superstition which survived in the Scottish Highlands until a recent date.) 
Hazel is the wood often used for divining rods and  if you stir jam with a hazel stick the fairies will not steal it!
The nuts were given the names of potential husbands and thrown into the fire by young girls. The loudest bang as the nut exploded or brightest flame showed which man she would marry.

Apart from the well known use of coppiced hazel for hurdle making, it was also used for baskets and the bast or stringy inner bark could be used as a tying material. The wood was used for carved walking sticks and broom handles and the oil from the nuts could be used as a polish. The nuts can be ground and added to flour for a flavoured pastry and like almonds can be used to make milk.

I'd try these ideas for cooking with hazelnuts.......if only the squirrels didn't take them before I get a look in.

Back Tomorrow
Sue