The exact point(s) hazelnuts originated from are debatable. Some believe they came from the east part of the Black Sea. The quintessential Greek historian Herodotus testified to their being in this area by his time(1). They indeed have been grown in the Black Sea coast of Turkey (northern part of the country) for 2,300 years or more, still considered an ideal climate for their production(2). They were food for early inhabitants of China and Switzerland(1).
Herodotus also testified to a method of pressing the oil out of them while they were in a bag. Rural areas still obtain olive AND hazelnut oil in such a manner. Ancient Greeks and Romans used hazelnuts in sauces and there was also a dessert using them and honey(1). The Bible even mentions hazelnuts(2, 3).
The Turks actually knew about hazelnuts when they were still in the center of Asia versus the far-western portion of the continent we now call Turkey. “Turkish scholar Ibn-i Sina (930-1037) mentions hazelnut as a medicine used to cure various diseases”. Travelers to the Giresun portion testified to how the land was rife with them in both the 1200s and 1902(1).
The first known documentation of international trade of the nuts from the region is from 1403 when a Spanish messenger ended up with a ship filled with them(1). Many European nations would make trade agreements to receive them between 1737 and 1909 plus the US in 1912(1). “More than 500,000 producers are involved in the cultivation, harvest, processing and sale of hazelnuts” in Turkey and the country still produces 80% of the world’s supply of them(2), having had a monopoly on production and export in the first part in the 1900s(1).
Sam Strickland, an English sailor who retired from the Hudson’s Bay Company, planted the first hazelnut tree in Oregon in the 1850s. It took nearly half a century more for commercial production to begin. The Willamette Valley of the state itself has a good soil and climate for growing them(3).
References:
Herodotus also testified to a method of pressing the oil out of them while they were in a bag. Rural areas still obtain olive AND hazelnut oil in such a manner. Ancient Greeks and Romans used hazelnuts in sauces and there was also a dessert using them and honey(1). The Bible even mentions hazelnuts(2, 3).
The Turks actually knew about hazelnuts when they were still in the center of Asia versus the far-western portion of the continent we now call Turkey. “Turkish scholar Ibn-i Sina (930-1037) mentions hazelnut as a medicine used to cure various diseases”. Travelers to the Giresun portion testified to how the land was rife with them in both the 1200s and 1902(1).
The first known documentation of international trade of the nuts from the region is from 1403 when a Spanish messenger ended up with a ship filled with them(1). Many European nations would make trade agreements to receive them between 1737 and 1909 plus the US in 1912(1). “More than 500,000 producers are involved in the cultivation, harvest, processing and sale of hazelnuts” in Turkey and the country still produces 80% of the world’s supply of them(2), having had a monopoly on production and export in the first part in the 1900s(1).
Sam Strickland, an English sailor who retired from the Hudson’s Bay Company, planted the first hazelnut tree in Oregon in the 1850s. It took nearly half a century more for commercial production to begin. The Willamette Valley of the state itself has a good soil and climate for growing them(3).
References:
- “History of the Hazelnut.” Burak Tarum. Web. October 15, 2022. https://buraktarim.com/history-of-the-hazelnut/?lang=en.
- “Hazelnut History.” Global Food. August 6, 2021. Web. October 15, 2022. https://globalfoodusa.com/the-history-of-hazelnuts/.
- Swanson, Paul D. “From Filberts to Hazelnuts. On the History and Naming of the Oregon State Nut and Other Naming Controversies.” Northwest Hazelnut Company. Web. October 15, 2022. https://hazelnuts.com/hazelnut-history/.
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