Hazelnuts - pick when green and ripen?

I wasn't really sure where to post this, hopefully this area is suitable.

I have masses of fairly large but still green hazelnuts on a couple of hedgerow trees. The squirrels usually get to them before me but this year I was wondering if I could get a head start and pick them when green and ripen them.

I've read that this can be done by picking them green and placing in a warm, dry place (like an airing cupboard) - is this the accepted method?

Using that method how long should they take to turn brown and become edible?

Can they even be eaten when green?


Thanks

 

They can be eaten when green, but they are a bit insipid.
Tried all ways to get them to ripen off the tree without any success. As far as I can see you really do need to wait until the shell begins to turn brown on the tree before picking.
At least it is squirrels, here United Utilities have just decimated the hedge round the treatment plant, removing nuts, rose hips, haws, sloes, blackberries and everything else as well. environmental vandalism of the worst kind.

 

Thanks.

So sorry to hear about United Utilities decimating some hedges. :(

 

Definitely wait until they turn brown in the shells and then they will be easier to harvest.This is what we do with the ones we collect.A friend of ours picked a load that she found while they were green and had to throw them away as they tasted vile after cooking them in her oven.

 

Thanks for the tips.

Also good to hear from Palustris that they can be eaten when green.

 

I've actually bought green ones from the farm shop.

Never again, pretty awful.

 

I did say they were insipid. Watched one of the people who grows them commercially being interviewed on TV one time(Countryfile I think) and he was eating them green, mind they were Kentish cobnuts so perhaps there is a difference.

 

They were probably cob nuts I bought @Palustris , god knows why they sell them green.