The Messina Hazelnut Farm
Our hazelnut farm is located in Seymour, Victoria
Have you ever eaten our white choc hazelnut, our gianduia, or our choc hazelnut spread? They are all made form the best hazelnuts we could find from around the world.
The nuts we currently buy are honed as the best in the world – we buy them from Italy – tondi di gentili dele lange, but this variety doesn’t grow very well in Australia and we wanted to grow our own. Which lead us to buying our own hazelnut farm.
Hazelnuts
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Location: Seymour (VIC) – 1 hour north of Melbourne
Home to: Close to 8000 hazelnut trees
Why don’t you just buy your hazelnuts in? We do at the moment. In fact, we source what are considered some of the best hazelnuts in the world from Cortemilia in the Piedmont Region of Italy.
But after much research we found some amazing varieties we could produce in Australia. We tested different ways of roasting and preparing them and realised we could potentially produce an even better product than we do currently. And so began the challenge of Hazelnut farming.
What varieties do you grow and how did you choose? We did a lot of research based on climate and suitability for the region of course, but we also did huge amounts of taste testing. Not just the raw nut, but we trialled different roasting techniques, a variety of recipes and used each in a number of products. In all sorts of things including gelato, pralines, nut pastes, chocolates and our own version of nutella. After eating our weight hazelnuts, we decided to grow 4 types of hazelnuts to give us our preferred flavour profile.
The Tonda Di Giffoni, the Lewis, TBC 20%, and the Barcelona.
We use the Tonda Di Giffoni to make our own hazelnut paste, and the other varieties pollinate the trees.
How long until we get to try some? We’re using a proportion of the nuts now, but we are still planting the varieties we need. It will be about another 3-4 years before we can produce enough for our needs.
Is your farm organic? We’re not organic, however currently do not use any pesticides and we hope to keep it that way.
