Civilization is facing global threats like never before. Climate instability. Food insecurity. The endangered family farm. Water pollution and scarcity. Mass extinction. Converting agricultural land into more secure, climate-stabilizing, water-filtering, wildlife-harboring farms would be positively transformative. Luckily, there is a way, currently under development, to do just this in many temperate climates: hybrid hazelnuts.
Growing Hybrid Hazelnuts is the first comprehensive guide for farmers interested in how to get started growing hybrid hazelnuts, a crop designed from the very outset to address a host of problems with conventional modern agriculture. Once hybrid hazelnuts are established, no plowing, or even cultivation, is necessary. Dramatically improved infiltration rates prevent water from running off of fields, regardless of soil type. The crop’s extensive, permanent root systems—at work 365 days a year—mean that tilling should not be necessary in moderately wet soils, and that no fertilizer can escape into groundwater. No soil is lost to wind or rain; in fact, this crop builds soil, and wildlife finds cover and food in hazelnuts all year. Economically speaking, hazelnuts have a large, existing, and unsatisfied world market, not to mention their processing potential is even greater than soybeans. They are, without a doubt, the ecological crop of the future.
This book covers everything you need to know about NeoHybrid hazels, the new biological entity developed by the authors, including:
• The source of the species and the making of an artificial, directed hybrid swarm;
• The historical use of hazels as a staple food in Europe and Asia;
• The nutrient composition of the crop;
• The benefits of woody agriculture and the superior productivity of these hazels;
• Site requirements: slope, soils, soil tests;
• Planting and the establishment period;
• Managing the productive plantation, including maintaining biodiversity;
• When to harvest, and harvesting options (hand or machine);
• Processing, from harvest to market: drying, husking, cleaning, sizing, cleaning, roasting;
• Value-added options (oil, meal, nut butters);
• Co-products and their values (wood, shells, husks, sub food-grade nuts, biodiesel);
• The state of the world hazel market, and more
The first and only guide of its kind, Growing Hybrid Hazelnuts will appeal to small-scale and commercial farmers, both those already familiar with concepts of perennial agriculture and those interested in converting from conventional practices. Growing Hybrid Hazelnuts is a landmark book for the farming movement, offering a practical road to a hopeful future where crops build soil and the earth is regenerated, at the same time reaping profits for the farmer.
