Chris Gamer, used by permission
Hazelnuts
Hazelnuts, courtesy of the Million Hazelnuts Campaign
First thought about hazelnuts—it’s Italy's Nutella, right? But get this: Hazelnuts grow in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Iowa, and there’s a big campaign for all of us around here, farmers and city-slicker gourmands both, to come together and grow them.
This initiative is called The Million Hazelnut Campaign, and I love it. It aims to do three things: First, raise awareness of how terrific hazelnuts are, environmentally, and as an economic engine for farmers, as well as a tasty food. Second, the campaign intends to persuade some farmers to take a gamble on hazelnuts, and transition some land to the shrubby nut-bearing trees. Finally, it wants us restaurant-going city-types to kick in some cash to make it all happen. So buddy, can you spare $7 to plant a local hazelnut tree?
Million Hazelnut Campaign
“I’m 57,” Chris Gamer told me. He's leading the hazelnut push. “And my generation just has not developed a really cohesive response to this crisis, which a lot of people don't know is a crisis for farmers too. When I first learned about climate change, in the 1980’s, the goal was to keep the permafrost frozen. Now that’s in the past. Back then, that was the reason I pursued a career in the solar industry. There, in spite of our best efforts, as solar energy grew, greenhouse gas emissions grew faster. That’s why I'm back to looking at agricultural solutions. I read Mark Shepard on how we can replace a lot of corn and soybeans with chestnuts and hazelnuts. That’s when I realized you can use hazelnuts as an overstory for chickens—and then I realized that hazelnuts can be used to achieve four of the five soil health principles."
Here's what hazelnuts do that's good: First, like all plants, they take carbon out of the air, and put it back in the ground. However, hazelnuts have a sturdy root system, and unlike, say, corn, once they get established, their land never has to be plowed again, preventing erosion. They also pull an ever greater amount of carbon out of the air as they grow. They prevent erosion and protect waterways. They’re drought-tolerant and don’t need irrigation. They’re bird, critter, and pollinator-friendly and provide habitat up and down the web of life. They’re hardy and pest-resistant and don’t require poisons like pesticides or other inputs. They’re permaculture crops that can live for many years, possibly centuries, because after they're planted, if they get old and weak you can cut them to the ground and they'll start up again. “I think it’s on my generation to start showing a real way out of this climate crisis," says Gamer. "For the farmers who are drowning in debt and input-costs, and for everyone. The way out is hazelnuts.”
If hazelnuts are the solution to climate crisis, what’s the hold-up? The problems, says Gamer, are several. First, it’s very expensive for farmers to transition land to hazelnuts, since each new hazelnut plant costs around $7, and those seedlings will take around five or eight years to produce a meaningful crop. Second, farmers don't think there’s a demand for these local hazelnuts, so no one’s willing to take that first step and take a risk to plant them, or build the infrastructure to process hazelnuts.
Hazelnut seedling
hazelnuts can grow near streams or other waterways on farms
That's the first place we city-eaters come in. We can put money towards planting hazelnuts. Currently there are around 200 acres of hazelnuts locally, and the Million Hazelnut Campaign aims to get us to donate $7 a pop to finance, yes, a million more hazelnut trees.
Could we ever rival Oregon? We won’t know until we actually get the hazelnuts in the ground, says Gamer. He’s not alone in his quest, a devoted band of hazelnut believers are gathering this month at a hazelnut conference to plot the way forward.
The second place we city-chefs, city-grocers, and city-eaters, can make a difference? Buy local hazelnuts at farmer’s markets. Ask your local grocer to stock local hazelnuts, from Wisconsin Driftless Area processor American Hazelnut Company.
You can also start brainstorming what could be done, if this became hazelnut territory. Could we feed hazelnuts to hogs, as premium producers do in Oregon? Or maybe turkeys? (Wild turkeys live on acorns in forests.) Could we make local hazelnut oils to dress our salads? Could we invent new hazelnut cookies, devise local hazelnut pastas, and make homemade Nutella better than the jarred stuff? If we had a million new hazelnut trees, why not?
When I heard about all these hazelnut dreams, I called up the chef I’ve noticed using hazelnuts most lately, Rikki Giambruno from Hyacinth, the just-announced long-list nominee for Rising Star Chef of the Year.
“I’d be tremendously excited for local hazelnuts,” Giambruno told me. “The toughest thing for us to get locally is nuts. We’re constantly forced to import nuts from far-away places, domestically or internationally, especially from Piedmont. It feels in this day and age somewhat irresponsible to be flying in nuts to your restaurant, if you have the ability to get something that also reduces the carbon footprint, who wouldn’t do that?”
