Why Choose

Hazelnuts are easy to incorporate in your diet as a source of plant-based protein and are loaded with nutrients, including vitamins, minerals, antioxidant compounds, healthy fats, and dietary fiber.

According to many different studies, consumption of hazelnuts has been associated with health benefits such as helping decrease blood fat levels, regulating blood pressure, reducing inflammation, improving blood sugar levels, supporting healthy bowel movements, and more.

Ways to Consume Hazelnuts:

While paying attention to healthy portion sizes, hazelnuts can be eaten raw, roasted, ground, and used in the preparation of dishes such as cookies, breads, muffins, fruitcake, slices, pastas, salads, soups, and more.

Further Reading:

• Hazelnuts: Health Benefits, Nutrients per Serving, Preparation Information, and More (webmd.com)
• 7 Ways Hazelnuts Benefit Your Health (healthline.com)
• 8 health benefits of hazelnuts (medicalnewstoday.com)

When you buy goods from local farmers and producers, your dollars stay local. You help support the success of the farmer’s business, which can then thrive and grow, in turn helping your local community by creating produce, contributing to local food security, providing local jobs, and growing the supporting a healthy, local economy.

Current hazelnut farmers in BC are helping revive a once strong industry after the challenges of Eastern filbert blight saw most of BC’s hazelnut orchards destroyed between 2010 and 2014. Along with the aid of new blight-resistant varieties, local consumer demand is critical to help the industry’s efforts to bounce back.

Another great benefit of supporting local farmers?
Local food just tastes better!

• Local food is better for the environment because it doesn’t have to travel as far to get to you, meaning a lower transportation carbon footprint.
• Supporting local growers usually means supporting a smaller farm operation. Many different local farm operations (rather than one mega farm with the one crop) leads to greater crop diversity in your local area, which is a good thing for our environment!
• Hazelnut trees are perennials meaning their roots remain intact from season to season, leading to better protection of the soil against erosion, and filter pollutants from groundwater.
• In general, perennial crops sequester more carbon from the atmosphere than annual crops. Studies indicate that European hazelnut orchards sequester carbon at a higher rate than other perennial crops.
• Hazelnut trees can thrive in tough soil, through drought and other harsh growing conditions, and require no pesticides.
• Hazelnut orchards can accommodate the growth of other crops between the tree rows, or grazing livestock.
• Hazelnut shells can absorb 30 to 40 percent of their weight in heavy metals and thus are proving their worth as an environmental cleaning agent. The shells can be used to help clean oil spills, tailing ponds, mines and tar sands. Another option is to use hazelnut shells as a biological way to filter water or as an alternative to activated charcoal systems.