ABSTRACT
This chapter provides the information on uses, folk medicine, chemistry, germplasm, distribution, ecol-ogy, cultivation, harvesting, yields, energy, and biotic factors of Turkish Filbert or Hazelnut. Cultivated for the nuts, the edible kernel used for confections, pastries, and for flavoring. Nuts also used roasted or salted, alone or with other nuts. This species is rarely cultivated for nuts in North America, but rather as an ornamental and for nursery understock. According to Hager's Handbook, the nuts contain melibiose, manni-notriose, raffinose, and stachyose. Nuts are harvested in fall. Trees bear every third year, beginning the eighth year. However, in Turkey where they are extensively cultivated for the nuts, trees yield annually from the fourth year onwards up to the twentieth year. Nuts of Turkish filberts are said to be as good in quality as the English hazelnut. Nuts dried in an unheated building usually require 4 to 6 weeks for drying. During this process the nuts should be stirred frequently to prevent molding.
