For anyone who likes hazelnuts this autumn has been a disaster. Bad weather devastated the hazelnut crops in Turkey, the world's biggest producer, and a big shortfall has sent the price of the nuts to a 10-year high. But in Britain there is a bumper crop of our wild native hazelnuts, and these are tasty and highly nutritious; rich in folate, iron, vitamins, healthy oils and protein.
In Celtic legend hazelnuts were an emblem of concentrated wisdom – sweet, compact and sustaining all in a nutshell. The hazel trees are often found growing in hedgerows, with the nuts wrapped in an elaborate frilly casing that looks like torn paper cups.
It looks as if autumn has arrived early as horse chestnut tree leaves have turned prematurely brown. This is from the ravages of the caterpillars of the horse chestnut miner moth, which first appeared in the UK in 2002 in Wimbledon. But many infected trees have still managed to produce lots of big glossy conkers this month, and the World Conker Championships will take place next month at Southwick, Northamptonshire.
The horse chestnut was originally brought here from the Balkans in 1576, but the first game of conkers was only first recorded in 1848, although before that children used to play a similar game with hazelnuts on a string. Conkers are also reputed to keep away spiders, and more recently have become a source of aescin, a valuable drug for vascular problems, and sports injuries such as sprains and bruises.
