Leshchina
Hazelnut( Corulus avellana L.) - hazel or hazelnut - this is our native kind of walnut tree, shrub birch. Known bushes give nuts in a leaf-like shell. The leaves of the hazel are regular, with uneven denticles along the edge of the leaf blade. Male flowers in dangling earrings, female - are located on two, in sinuses of scales from the merged bracts. Fruits are single-seeded nuts with a brown shell and a delicious oily seed. Hazel - an ancient plant, originally this culture was born on the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus. Circassians bred it already in the III-IV centuries BC.From here he got to the Mediterranean countries. Later it appeared in other European countries.
Since ancient times hazel was surrounded by many beliefs and legends. In pagan antiquity, nuts were considered a symbol of life and fertility. They are traditionally associated with love, marriage, childbearing. In ancient Rome, they were given a wedding couple on their wedding day, so that they were prolific in marriage. This tradition has long been preserved in some European countries - for example, in Germany. In France, in Gayak, newlyweds were showered with nuts when they were kneeling in front of the altar. And in the English county of Devonshire, the bride who was leaving the church was met by an old woman and handed her a bag of hazelnuts.
In Russia it was believed that a double nut( with two nucleoli in one shell) brings wealth and happiness. Such nuts were kept and worn in the wallet, so that money would be kept, as well as around the neck, in order to protect oneself from illnesses and troubles.
A similar sign existed in olden times and in England. Finding a double nut, making a wish, eating one nucleolus, and throwing the other over his shoulder. It should be kept silent until you are asked a question, the answer to which will be "yes."And to achieve the love or friendship of any person, a double nut had to be shared with him and eat it alone in silence. For Bulgarians, hazelnuts were necessarily served on the table on the eve of Christmas. Some of these nuts were preserved for a whole year. When someone had a sore throat, they rubbed the sore spot with a Christmas nut.
Hazel itself in Europe has long been considered one of the most powerful magical plants. The ancient Greeks and Romans believed that the sacred branch of the hazel grove indicates buried treasures and helps to extinguish fires. The branches of the hazel grove were covered with walls and the ceiling of the house to provide residents with health and safety.
General information: hazel, also called hazel or hazel, reaches a height of 4-5 and even 10 m. The culture of hazel is thousands of years old;so, it is mentioned in the works of the Roman poet Virgil, the Roman writer and agronomist Columella.
Composition of
Hazelnut kernels contain a large amount of fats, proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins and other nutrients. In terms of calorie, the nutwood kernels outperform pork and soy. The amount of fats in them reaches 79%, protein - 18% and 8% carbohydrates..They are well absorbed by the body. Carbohydrates are dominated by starch, sucrose. Nuts contain 1.3% of mineral substances( iron, calcium, phosphorus, potassium), many B vitamins, about 0.26% carotene, a little vitamin C, trace elements( copper, etc.).In the kernels of hazel to 5% of iron, in the yellow peel( peel), its amount reaches 12%, they also contain calcium and other elements. Walnut kernel cake has 4% protein and 8-10% fat.
Essential oil, tannins and alcohol are found in the bark.
Varieties of .In the garden, near the fence, one should find a place for at least two hives. Among the cultured large-berry varieties, the variety "Galska Obrovska" is widespread and the variety of "Webbova" and "Lombardska Bila", which mature in August and which have nuts of oblong form as if in a shell, grows slower and later fruiting. As they bear fruit well, only these two varieties are grown. Sometimes we grow a tree-like hazel as a decorative form. The hazel is moisture-loving and light-loving, with plenty of moisture and light it fructifies well. This plant is a source of pollen, in which up to 30% of proteins. Nuts after harvesting are cleaned from the stalk and dried.
Requirements: hazel is extremely unpretentious, does not like drought, does not react to cold practically - can withstand frosts to -50 ° С;
suffers little from diseases and pests, its only requirement is lime containing soils. The hazel is warmed by warm loamy or sandy loam soils lying deep and well-fertilized. Cold, heavy, compact, and too light and dry to bear badly.
Planting: is the natural and most common form of hazel in the middle belt is the shrub. For planting 2-4-year-old seedlings are used. For the woody form of hazel as a rootstock, you can use a bear nut. The seedlings are planted in autumn, in October-November, with the feeding area of each bush 6x6 or 4x8 m. For better cross-pollination, at least 3-4 varieties are planted in one plot, placing them in separate rows. After planting, the aerial part of the plant is cut.
Care: during the growing season it is good to loosen the ground several times and remove the weeds in time. Adult bushes fertilize 1 time in 2 to 3 years( 20 kg of manure are applied) and, in addition, annually - mineral fertilizers. On dry and light soils it is useful to water at least 3 times a year the plants of hazel and mulch the soil under bushes.
Pruning: , when forming a hazel in the form of a bush, depending on the area of the planted area in the bush, there may be 5 to 10 branches. After planting, the aerial part of the plant is cut off, leaving a stump not more than 10 cm high( 4-6 kidneys).This strong pruning stimulates the growth of root shoots and offspring.
In the next season, you need to select the number of branches from which the bush will be formed, and the remaining cut at the base. When the required number of branches is left, the extra thickening and shadowing crowns of the bush need to be cut out or dig out annually and used as a planting material. In addition, the offspring can be used to replace old or dead trunks in the bush.
The hazel is sufficiently durable, so the need for rejuvenating pruning occurs only after 15-17 years. Rejuvenation of the plant is carried out in several stages, cutting every year 3-4 old branches and leaving in place the same number of replacing branches from the root offspring. Within 2-3 years the bush will be completely rejuvenated and restored.
You can rejuvenate and radically, cutting the entire aboveground part at the base and leaving only young branches. In the next season, it will be possible to proceed with the formation of the crown from a growing canopy.
Cutting branches at the base, in the crown of the hazel, try not to leave high hemp.
Harvesting: is brown, sometimes the stripes are harvested by the fully ripened post of how the sheet wrapping turns yellow or: it rushes and the nuts are easily removed from it. Harvest nuts in the forest and garden in late August and during September.
Usage: they are useful in the process of recovery of diabetics( they have a high percentage of phosphorus) - for children, students, mental workers, if they do not have problems with excess weight.
From the cake of nuts cook halva, it is a part of chocolate and sweets, cakes, pastries, butter hazel often replaces almond in the confectionery industry. In cooking, nuts are used in the manufacture of confectionery, ice cream, desserts, drinks or use them, pre-lightly browned. They can be added to fillings for puffing birds( chickens, turkeys).
Nuts are eaten fresh, delicious nuts are very tasty( calves in the oven at 110 ° C).From nuts produce cream, milk, flour. The oil, extracted from nuts, has a good taste and is easily absorbed by the body. It is used for food purposes.
Nut milk
Try to make nuts in honey according to the recipe of our great-grandmothers. Nuts to peel, remove the top peel, dry in a lightly heated oven, can be dried in a few tricks. Then bring the honey to a boil and cook until red. Continuously stirring, pour in as many nuts as necessary to form a thick mass. On low heat cook until the honey begins to solidify on the spoon, then using two spoons, arrange the nuts with a pile on a dish moistened with water, cool them, dry and serve. Thus they can be stored for a long time, folded into cans and put in a dry but cold place.
pudding
oil
hazelnut nuts Nuts quickly improve blood composition, so hazel nuts are used to treat children suffering from anemia, they are recommended to nursing mothers to increase the amount of milk. As a high-protein and high-calorie product they are recommended to include in the diet of children and people who have had severe illnesses, operations.
In folk medicine , kernels of nuts are recommended for renal stone disease, with honey for anemia and rheumatism. Nut oil is taken internally as a grease-reducing agent and against epilepsy, it is also rubbed into the scalp to enhance hair growth. Decoction from the cortex is used for varicose veins, thrombophlebitis, leaf flock - with prostatic hypertrophy, paralysis of the facial nerve.
Grated honey nuts are recommended for consumption when coughing. The leaves of the hazel have a curative effect, they are collected from May to August.
Use the leaves in a tea mixture with a diuretic effect( 1 tablespoon of tea is brewed in 1 cup of water).Tea should be drunk 3 times a day.
Leaves act favorably on the intestinal tract. Tincture of the leaves of hazel is used to lubricate varicose veins, spasmodic veins and hemorrhoids. In the leaves of the hazel there are essential oils, flavonoids, tannins, glycosides, they have an anti-inflammatory effect. They are also used in cosmetics, since they have a binding property - when cleaning the contaminated skin of the face and washing greasy hair.