Hiking for hazelnuts.

As it was the last day with no rain for a few days and we are full of water we decided to do a load of washing. After that was finished and hung up we went for a walk to the Hatton Country World 'attraction'. It was only about half a mile so we were soon there.

It was busy with loads of kids at a little bit of a petting zoo type thing and an adventure world with lots of things for kids to do. That meant they they were largely confined to play areas so the small shopping area was free for adults to root around. It was obviously a disused farm yard with the buildings converted. It was quite a nice way to spend an hour or two as there were some different things to look at. Helen found a nice top and she also managed to find three Christmas presents too. 

They have a few walks round the Hatton Estate and one took us over the fields toward Hatton Top Lock. On the way we got a better view of the former Asylum from yesterday's blog.

The field boundaries had been planted up with hedges that were a foragers dream really. There were plenty of brambles and apples and there were plenty of sloes and rose hips for later in the year. I was attracted though by the many hazel or cobb nuts that were growing. I have seen plenty this year and a had decided to have another go at harvesting them this year.

The ones on our walk were largely quite plump and were starting to go brown. The trouble is if you leave them until they are fully ripe they disappear when the squirrels etc get their teeth into them.

I picked this many in a large punnet and looked up a recipe for hazelnut butter and homemade Nutella spread and thought that would be a good project.

The large punnet full, once shelled, revealed this amount of nuts, seen in the same punnet. Despite their not being very much I will try to make a small batch of butter to see how it goes. I could then pick lots more if it goes well. They are in the oven toasting at the moment. I hope the toasting will give them a little more flavour as they seem a little tasteless at the moment.

It is a nice mooring just here as the railway line is behind several hedges and in a slight cutting. The roar of the M40 can just be made out but is not invasive at the moment. Mind you when we move on tomorrow it may well be. This is the view from our table at the moment.