BAYFIELD COUNTY, Wis. – Imagine a new crop that stabilizes soil and fights erosion. It might improve water absorption in fields during major rainstorms. Once planted it can yield a cash crop for decades. It could be planted in windbreaks – and it could become a major cash crop in Wisconsin. There is such a crop and it is ready to burst upon the agricultural scene.
A sign near a Hazelnut Go-First Farm advertises a hazelnut field day.
Jason Fischbach, emerging-crops specialist with the University of Wisconsin-Division of Extension, gestures as he discusses the Hazelnut Go-First Farm at the Bayfield Business Park near Ashland, Wisconsin.
A row of healthy hazelnut seedlings stretches into the distance. Hazelnuts can bear nuts in as little as three years; a planting can provide nut crops for decades.
Hazelnuts, protected from deer by an electric fence, grow near Blue Ox Cidery. The shrubs can be planted in windbreaks, fence rows or as riparian buffers along streams.
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Jason Fischbach discusses hazelnut processing at the Hulings Rice Food Center at Northland College in Ashland, Wisconsin.
Hazelnuts in barrels await processing at the Hulings Rice Food Center at Northland College. New genetics are making hazelnuts into a cash crop for Wisconsin farmers.
Jason Fischbach explains how a machine sorts hazelnuts by size.
Hazelnuts are given a final inspection at the Northland College-Hulings Rice Food Center.
Hazelnut shells vibrate across a bridge to a container.
Jason Maloney is an “elderly” farm boy from Marinette County, Wisconsin. He’s a retired educator, a retired soldier and a lifelong Wisconsin resident. He lives on the shore of Lake Superior with his wife, Cindy Dillenschneider, and Red, a sturdy loyal Australian Shepherd.
