A tough nut to crack

If you want to go gathering nuts, try picking slightly unripe ones before the squirrels get them, says Bob

- Bob Flowerdew

IF you have a little nut tree, nothing will it bear… Well, it probably will bear nuts, but as everyone knows the squirrels get there first. Sadly, this is one of the few difficulties with most nuts, which are remarkably simple to cultivate and come into crop from as early in life as an apple or pear. (True, walnuts can take ages, but they’re an exception.) Indeed, hazel, cob and filbert nuts are the most superb low-maintenance, high-protein,high-fat crop that also produces faggots, firewood and sustains many native insects.

We should all plant some nut trees, but most people are put off by the rightly held belief that squirrels will take the lot, helped by other rodents and larger birds. Our problem is that we traditionally gather the nuts when they have fallen. By this time, though, the pesky varmints have already picked through them, taking the best, though generously leaving the rotten and weevil eaten.