Part 12 (2/2)

My problem was to engineer a scheme whereby I could interest farmers in setting out small acreages of these plants and guarantee that there would be a market when the plants produced nuts, which would be in about three years from the time they were planted. Seeing that the filbert producers in the west were struggling for a better market, since conditions were not too favorable for the filbert in its compet.i.tion with the foreign nuts and the California produced Persian walnut, I decided that nuts in the sh.e.l.l were a little bit old-fas.h.i.+oned. Many of our prominent members of the NNGA have from time to time advised the marketing of nut kernels rather than nuts in their natural containers, and I thought a step in the right direction would be to manufacture a ready-to-eat product from the kernels. And what could be nicer than a b.u.t.ter similar to peanut b.u.t.ter?

So I began scouring the market for a grinding machine that would grind filberts to the consistency of a smooth peanut b.u.t.ter. My first machine was a Hobart peanut grinder. When buying this machine the mistake I made was to let the agent of the manufacturer demonstrate how good it was to grind Spanish peanuts; I should have had it tested on filberts as they are much tougher, even though they do carry more oil. This machine was installed, but it was a complete failure and I decided to buy more expensive machinery, and also put in a cracking plant and buy the nuts by the ton or carload, if necessary, directly from the growers on the Pacific Coast or through their organization, the Northwest Nut Growers.

I located a satisfactory machine for the purpose, which required about 7 horse power to run. Since this was during the war and no motors of the right speed and power were available at the time, I set up my own generating plant, using a 25 kilowatt generator driven by a Diesel engine which generated direct current so that I could use direct current motors which I already had among my machinery supplies. Then a separating machine, which required a 10 horse power motor just to operate the fan, which is part of that equipment, was purchased. Also, a nut cracking machine was secured from a West Coast manufacturer. Along with tanks and containers and other necessary equipment, all set up in a little factory building I had available for that purpose, I commenced the manufacture of filbert b.u.t.ter on a commercial scale.

The product was declared by every one to be excellent. We were quite sure of this since we had taken pains to buy up any product that purported to be a nut b.u.t.ter, and had tested those products in many ways to a.s.sure ourselves that we had a product superior to anything that we could find on the market at that time. The Owens Illinois Gla.s.s Company designed our label and gave us the benefit of their experience with containers. Then we placed our initial order for gla.s.s containers and re-s.h.i.+pping cases. Every detail in handling this material was properly taken care of, to insure that if the orders came rolling in we would be able to supply the demand and have our s.h.i.+pments reach the consumer in first cla.s.s shape.

Then we initiated an advertising campaign, coupled with sampling, and received many fine letters which encouraged us to hire a salesman who sold the product to the stores in the Twin City area so as to have proper distribution. Advertising was done also in two national magazines, so we sat back, hopefully antic.i.p.ating the big orders that we were soon to receive. The reorders from the local stores came in slowly, too slowly for our set-up. We received suggestions from the store keepers and from other persons that perhaps the product was too high priced, so we made experiments in other towns where we set the price so low that there was no profit. In fact, there would be a loss of money were we to do business on that basis. Yet there was no stimulation of sales due to this reduction in price.

Many good suggestions came in; among these was the suggestion that the product lent itself nicely to an ice cream topping; by mixing it with honey or with syrup we interested our largest manufacturer of ice cream in this locality and he did a lot of experimental selling. He was very cooperative. He also sold it in his branch stores as milk shakes; everybody liked it. No complaints whatsoever except that the manager said it was too expensive to compete with a chocolate flavor on which he made much more money. Finally this whole thing fizzled out and was discontinued.

The next experiment was with candy; as a candy center it was one of the finest tasting confections that had ever been made, but the oil which would ooze through the chocolate coatings prevented the practical use of it. You see, the filbert has about 65% oil, and when it is ground into a fine, creamy b.u.t.ter, this oil will come out and sometimes be an inch or more in depth over the top of the b.u.t.ter in the gla.s.s container in which it was marketed. So we investigated several methods by which we could eliminate the oil. We could pour it off and sell the oil separately; we could emulsify the product with the addition of certain emulsifiers, so as to keep the oil mixed with the starch and protein of the filbert nut. We tried many ways; there is only one method that we haven't used and that is to combine solidified or hydrogenized peanut oil with the filbert b.u.t.ter in order to prevent this liquid oil from rising to to the top of the product. The reason we did not do this is quite apparent--we did not want to mix peanuts and filberts, as we considered peanut b.u.t.ter a cheaper and inferior product. We could not hope to compete with peanut b.u.t.ter with the prices already set for peanut b.u.t.ter recognized by the trade.

Among the products that came to our attention, however, was one which had both filbert b.u.t.ter and solidified peanut oil in it. When we tested this product among many of our friends, they declared it tasted too much like peanut b.u.t.ter. It spoiled the delicate, fine flavor of the natural filbert b.u.t.ter (which we were marketing without adding any sort of seasoning, and without roasting the product the way peanuts are roasted before they are ground into b.u.t.ter.)

Now, if any of you readers think that we have left out something important which would have insured the success had we done it that way, we would certainly like to hear from you, or we have some nice machinery that we will sell cheap in case you want to experiment with it yourself.

I would be the last one to condemn the future possibility of producing a commercial nut b.u.t.ter, and yet it is strange that the only successful nut b.u.t.ter is not a nut b.u.t.ter at all. Peanut b.u.t.ter is not a nut b.u.t.ter because peanuts are a legume like a pea or bean. To my knowledge, we do not have any nut b.u.t.ters on the market today with the exception of the cashew nut b.u.t.ter, which recently had a distribution in our locality, but which seems now to have run its course much as our products did. We bought the cashew b.u.t.ter and tried to interest everybody to use it, just to see whether it was any different than our product in its popularity.

In our meager tests we found that the filbert b.u.t.ter was slightly more popular than the cashew, since the cashew reminded people too much of peanuts again. It was also very expensive. However, there must be a way to make a satisfactory b.u.t.ter out of filberts or hybrid nuts, as they carry the hope of the cheapest nut product, which is fundamentally necessary to manufacture a popular food item.

The method of propagation of the Hazilbert is by layers instead of grafting--layering is a cheaper and more satisfactory method. Also, the nuts are the most satisfactory to crack as they have no inner part.i.tions which would require intricate machinery to extract the kernel. Their keeping quality is excellent; we have tested this out over a number of years, and filbert b.u.t.ter properly processed will easily keep a year without turning rancid or having an unfavorable flavor. The tonnage of nuts that can be produced on an acre of land is unbelievably high. I have measured individual plants and their production, and the area that they covered, and it is safe to say that we can expect to produce a ton of nuts in the sh.e.l.l per acre in favorable locations on good deep soil.

Even at 10c per pound for the nuts this is a good return. New methods of gathering the nuts after they fall from the involucre or husk are being discovered and improved by the western growers from time to time, so that the old expensive method of hand-picking is being eliminated.

This should make the filbert even cheaper to harvest.

It is not my intention here to discourage the manufacture of filbert b.u.t.ter, but to point out the difficulty that I have had personally to promote the idea in a commercial way. Neither is it my intention to stimulate too much interest in the planting of the new filbert varieties which are still under test. I feel that it is necessary to test a plant for at least a five-year period before it can be singled out as a plant to propagate. We have not yet reached the point where we care to sell these plants, as much better ones might crop up among the untested plants, which number over 1000, and which have never yet had a chance to bear so as to show what they can do. At some future time I expect to write an article on filbert hybrid culture (Hazilberts) for the whole central, north, and northeastern part of the United States, and at that time I believe that tests will have progressed to such a point that recommendations can be made.

DR. MacDANIELS: There was one more paper that the Secretary has that was not scheduled, from Mr. Elton E. Papple, of Ontario. t.i.tle, ”Filberts, Walnuts, and Chestnuts on the Niagara Peninsula.”

Filberts, Walnuts and Chestnuts on the Niagara Peninsula

ELTON E. PAPPLE, Cainsville, Ontario

My brother and I have been interested in growing nut trees for some time, and have had some interesting experiences and some success. A few years ago, Mr. Slate sent us from Geneva some varieties of filberts which he considered quite hardy. We purchased some from Mr. Gellatly in Westbank, British Columbia, some from Mr. Troup, Jordan Station, Ontario (near Vineland); also from J. F. Jones Nursery, then in Lancaster, Pa.

Mr. Slate sent us scionwood and we grafted these scions in the spring and layered them shortly afterwards. By the following spring they were rooted well enough to be planted out in the nursery row. This gave us our material to work with, and about the third year we started making crosses between different varieties. The first year we obtained quite a few crosses, and had a good number of these seeds to germinate in the spring after taking from stratified storage and planting them in the nursery row. These trees have now started to come into bearing, and they promise to be better than their parents in some instances.

We made a number of crosses since, but we have been very busy and the young trees of these crosses have just about perished through neglect.

In this last lot we had a cross of the filbert on the beak or horn hazel[5], and of a cl.u.s.ter of three, had one to grow, which in turn was promptly eaten off by a rabbit or rodent of some description. The reason for this cross originally, was that, so far as we could see in the last fifteen years the male catkins never winter-kill; whereas filbert trees are subject to this hazard. Some of the filbert varieties have the ability to withstand changeable weather and not lose all of their catkins. Others will winter-kill in the wood as well. We have removed all our Barcelona and Du Chilly trees because they winter-killed almost one hundred percent.

[5] Corylus rostrata.--Ed.

With the experience we have had with filberts, we believe that before they could be commercialized, it would be necessary to have hardy catkins that will withstand changeable weather: not altogether resistance to extreme cold, but to temperatures that vary from warm to freezing in a few hours. A mulch does help where the warm period is for a short duration; but last winter we had a week or more of warm weather in January, with rain and then a cold snap. Even then, some of the catkins on the German varieties and others came through fairly well.

Selection of varieties for machine cracking or eating from the sh.e.l.l should determine varieties one should grow, but hardiness should be the key factor in selecting varieties. The following table shows some of the crosses we made. Most of these seedlings have borne a few nuts to date, but we cannot give anything definite as to whether the catkins are hardier than those of the parents.

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