The shells are safe to put in the municipality compost bin if you have one. In a home compost, they will take a while to degrade so we do not recommend putting a big quantity at once. Some might help aerate the compost..?

We are still researching and experimenting with ways to use the cracked shells. Using them as mulch seems to be popular. We've read that they burn well but we have not tested them out as fuel yet! We will keep updating this section as we find out more.

Inside the hard shells are the kernels: they are covered in a thin, papery brown skin. This skin is rich in fiber and antioxidants, so you should eat them as long as you don't mind them.

If you need to remove the skin, you can either blanch or roast & rub off.

- Blanching

Bring water to a boil and add some baking soda (we use 1 tablespoon of baking soda per cup of water). For one cup of kernels, aim for about 2 cups of water - we have not experimented with different proportions, but this (2 water: 1 kernel ) proportion worked for us.

Boil the kernels in this water for 3-4 min. The water will turn very dark and that's normal.

Drain and put the kernels in an ice bath.

Gently squeeze the kernel between your fingers and the skin should peel right off.

Raw or roasted, hazelnut kernels are great snacks. You can create your own nut mix by marrying Hazelnuts with other nuts and seeds, dried fruit, chocolates & candies...

We will add under this section methods for roasting and candying hazelnuts!

Using a food processor, you can turn kernels into Hazelnut meals. Don't process too long otherwise you will end up with butters!

Recipes to come!

We've tried different methods in making butters: raw/roasted, small batch/big batch, no added oil/with added oil...and sometimes, the mixture just stays crumbly and does not turn into a smooth spread.

We wanted to have a way to make a smooth spread without the addition of oil or sugar, and the combination that ended up working every time for us is to roast first and then use a powerful blender. Our blender can process one cup of kernels and turn that into a butter that is about 4 oz or half a cup of butter. This is probably the smallest size batch that you can make at home. Less than that does not provide the critical mass to process into a butter.

We really love the fact that we can make a nut butter with just one ingredient! From that you can personalize your own spread, more or less sweet, with or without added flavors such as vanilla, cinnamon, coco etc.

Recipes to come!