Beaked Hazelnut – Canada’s Hidden Treasure

How Does Dog Food Taste?

A professor once told our class that he had tried dog food—out of pure curiosity. His reasoning? His dog went absolutely wild for it every single meal, so it had to be delicious, right? Wrong. It was awful.

That dog-food-sampling grandpa later became the Dean of the department. I've never felt the urge to follow his example. But there was one thing I desperately wanted to taste...

How Does Beaked Hazelnut Taste?

One summer day, while walking along a trail beside a golf course in Muskoka, Ontario, I spotted a broken nut shell on the ground. It was from a freshly picked nut—still almost intact, but the kernel inside was completely gone. Every last bit.

My first thought: there must be a hazelnut tree nearby. I looked around and quickly found a beaked hazelnut (Corylus cornuta) shrub, just a little taller than me. But it was only late July— too early for hazelnuts to be ripe. The squirrel that beat me to it must have found the nut impossibly sweet, even before its time. I had to try one for myself.

I carefully extracted the creamy meat and just bit right in. And the moment I did, nothing else mattered.

As the nut meat sat between my teeth, I felt the rush of good oil—richer and more satisfying than the finest virgin olive oil. It was as if all the goodness and richness of Muskoka had been concentrated into that tiny morsel.

The taste seemed to have three dimensions:

1. Horizontally, it was smooth and creamy. Most nuts we eat are dried-out supermarket specimens, but this fresh nut was so crunchy it practically melted in my mouth.
2. Vertically, I could feel its depth—an earthy, mineral-rich flavour that seemed to sing and dance across my palate.
3. And there was breadth too—the aroma was a beautiful blend of native black spruce, red pine, and sugar maple.

In a word? Heavenly. I can't think of a better one.

The Marriage Age of Hazelnut

Later, I found more wild beaked hazelnuts in other parts of Ontario. Unlike white oaks and black walnuts—which are restricted to Eastern Canada—beaked hazelnuts can be found all across Canada, from British Columbia all the way to Newfoundland.

The renowned ecologist Aldo Leopold once wrote about the "marriage age" of pine trees—around 13 years old, meaning that's when they begin to bear fruit. 

The legal marriage age of the hazelnut, I am afraid, is much younger. From my own observations, American hazelnuts can flower in as little as three years, and beaked hazelnuts often follow suit within four to five. So while it may take a few more years to reach a full harvest, the first nuts arrive remarkably quickly — a huge advantage over the pine's patient 13-year wait.

The Takeaway

It took a dog-food-tasting professor and a hungry squirrel to introduce me to the beaked hazelnut—Canada's hidden treasure. And that encounter opened a whole new chapter for me: hazelnut cultivation.

I don't recommend tasting dog food. But I do recommend planting native hazelnut trees—whether American hazelnuts or beaked hazelnuts. Neither will give you record-breaking nut sizes, but if you give them a sunny, fertile spot, they'll reward you with a back-breaking harvest and a heart-full of joy.

Money in the bank earns compound interest. But hazelnuts in the ground? They earn you a compound interest of joy. One day, you might find yourself in the same shoes as me—scrambling through your dictionary, searching for words to describe the goodness of a tiny nut. And you'll likely end up the same way I did:

Short on words, but full of appreciation.