Hazelnut Grower Trial Farm Tour: Nutcracker Ridge Farm, Uxbridge

The Ontario Hazelnut Association (OHA) is pleased to be hosting, in partnership with Nutcracker Ridge Farm, the final public tour of the farms in our Grower Trial Program for 2017. We encourage farmers and landowners to join us on Sunday, September 10 to learn about the benefits of participating in the expanding hazelnut industry in Ontario. You will be able to tour a hazelnut farm and Ferrero Canada and the OHA will be on hand to answer all of your questions

To celebrate the start of the harvest season, we're making this a major event! Lunch and dinner will be served along with music and a networking social!

Roselyn & Earl, the owners of Nutcracker Ridge Farm, will walk you through a tour of their eleven-acre orchard and talk about their experiences in their first year after planting hazelnut trees each year for the past three years.

This tour is free to attend and open to everyone.

Agenda

10:30 AM - 11:00 AM: Arrival - Coffee and donuts provided by OHA.

11:00 AM - 12:00 PM: Introductions

• Welcome - Roselyn & Earl, Nutcracker Ridge Farm
  

• OHA Introduction and History - Linda Grimo, Chair, OHA

• Ferrero Plan for Ontario - Barb Yates, Senior Agronomist, Ferrero Canada

• Hazelnut Economics - Les High, Highview Orchards
  

• Overview of Grower Trial Project and Tour Schedule -Andrew Nixon, Project Manager, OHA

12:00 PM - 1:00 PM: Lunch

• Served by the Hobby Horse Arms, Uxbridge, ON
  

1:00 PM - 3:00 PM: Field Tour

• East Field (1 - 2-year-old hazelnuts)
  Discussion topics: field preparation, planting, variety selection, pollination

• West Field (3-year-old hazelnuts)
  Discussion topics: tree maintenance - watering, staking, pruning, pests

• Barn 
  Discussion topics: harvesting, aggregation, processing, sales

3:00 PM - 3:30 PM: Hazelnut Panel Q&A

3:30 PM - 5:00 PM: Networking Mixer

• Dinner - Served by the Hobby Horse Arms

• Music and social