Hazel (Corylus avellana)

Hazel makes excellent dense cover for birds, and is often used as an understory in conservation woodlands for that purpose. It has been used since prehistory as a coppicing tree, and provides roundwood poles which can be used for wattle fencing, shelters houses, and gates. Coppice poles are suitable for use from age 3- 4 years, but anything up to 7 years can still be useful. Coppice woodlands using hazel for roundwood are often split into zones, and a rotation is employed to provide a continual harvest of poles (for 7 year poles, seven stands of hazel are necessary). Thus coppice woodlands represent a kind of age diverse succession which permits a variety of light, vegetation, cover and water scenarios. They are excellent for wildlife.

Hazel nuts are easy to harvest, and may be eaten as roasted nuts, but are otherwise difficult to utilise, on account of their toughness and tannin content. They may be successfully used as flour after cooking and pulverising. From the point of view of “obtaining a yield” making flour is quite labour intensive. Kentish cobnuts seem to be the easiest and most tasty variety of hazel nuts for roasting.