The squirrels have nothing to fear from me. Whether it’s due to lack of ability or straight laziness, neither a picker nor gatherer am I.

Every year as the northern Maine winters turn into spring then summer and finally fall, I watch the seasonal bounty – fiddleheads, strawberries, blueberries, apples and hazelnuts – come and go; untouched by these two human hands.

For others, however, it’s time to take to the woods armed with burlap bags, with buckets and bug dope, in search of the wild hazelnut, Corylus cornuta.

It’s the height of hazelnut season in northern Maine. Known as noisettes in French, it’s a pitched battle between the two-legged and four-legged hazelnut aficionados.

One part delicacy and one part tradition, the annual hazelnut harvest goes back generations.

“I picked because when we were kids, my dad took us picking,” said Anna Picard, a Fort Kent native now living in Connecticut. “Of course, we had to get them before the squirrels did. I really miss hazelnuts now – especially when they are fresh-tasting.”

Those in the know will start scoping out their favorite locations during midsummer. The amount of blossoms on the tree and whether those blossoms had a chance to set before any late spring frosts got to them are carefully analyzed and tucked away for future reference.

As summer’s dog days wane and the days shorten, the hazelnuts slowly ripen on the tree and timing is everything.

Pick them too early and the young, milky hazelnut has little or no flavor. Go too late and there is nothing left to pick – the forest animals have been there first.

Ah, but hit it just right, any true hazelnut lover will say, and you have true woodland ambrosia. But man oh man, you are going to work for it. Because picking the hazelnut is just the first step.

Once home with their bounty, hazelnut pickers must get through not one, but two layers of protective casings to get to the tasty treat within.

Wild hazelnuts grow singularly or in clusters, each covered by a stiff, green husk bristling with small prickles.

Gloves are highly recommended as prolonged contact with the juice exuded by the husk turns fingers and hands a lovely shade of purple.

“I remember holding each [husk] by the tail and peeling it off,” Picard said. “But our hands got all prickly.”

So what’s a hazelnut lover to do?

Some put all their hazelnuts into a burlap bag and repeatedly slam it against the hard ground, forcing the nuts from the husk.

Then there’s Roland Charette of Fort Kent, who perhaps has taken the art of hazelnut dehusking to its zenith.

About seven years ago, Charette said he was tired of hand-peeling the hazelnuts and figured there had to be a better way.

What followed were years of admitted trial and error ending in a machine that turns hours of work into a matter of minutes.

Belt-driven by a small electric motor, Charette’s invention tumbles the hazelnuts in a screened cylinder as they are beaten against stiff, plastic paddles. Green, fuzzy hazelnuts go in and come out about four minutes later cleaned down to their shiny brown shells.

“It took some time to get the speed just right,” Charette said. “If it went too fast, it beat the hazelnuts into nothing and if it was too slow, you could starve waiting for them to be done.”

So popular and deceptively simple was Charette’s machine that when he put it on display to sell, instead of purchasing, people simply appropriated the technology for themselves.

“I’d see people coming, taking measurements and then they would build one themselves,” he laughed. Charette quickly took his floor model out of the public eye.

Now he builds them for others or, for $1 a bucket, will run anybody’s harvest through his backyard machine.

But hazelnuts are tough nuts to crack and, as resourceful as he is, even Charette has to go about it the old-fashioned way- one hazelnut at a time.

Hammers, pliers, rocks or back molars – everything it seems except traditional nutcrackers – are used in the Valley to get to the hazelnut meat.

Once in through the husk and hard shell, the reward is a small, pea-sized nut. Tasty, to be sure, but worth the effort? That depends on whom you ask.

“I’ll take a bunch and just sit outside by the fire and eat them,” Charette said. “It’s better than candy.”

If it all seems a bit too much like work, there are those who share the bounty – for a price. Not as common as they once were, there still are those who pick, dehusk and pack hazelnuts in glass jars to sell roadside. Perfect for folks like me who hanker for a taste without all the work involved.

Eating hazelnuts straight from the shell seems to be the whole point. Unlike its western counterpart, the cultivated and much larger filbert, virtually no local recipes exist for the diminutive cornuta.

“I remember my mother sometimes chopping them up and putting them in simple sugar cookies,” one hazelnut fan told me.

Several cooks indicated hazelnuts could be substituted for filberts in any recipe.

Mostly, I got mystified looks when I asked about recipes. “Why would you want to bake them in anything?” one picker asked as she popped a freshly shelled hazelnut into her mouth.

Good question. After hiking through the woods, fighting with squirrels, husking and shelling, going the extra steps to create some sort of hazelnut culinary creation seems a bit of overkill.

But, for those who have the patience, stamina and desire, here are two untested recipes taken off the Internet.

Frankly, I’ll leave them to the squirrels.

Hazelnut, Orange and Yogurt Muffins

12 muffins

Topping:

2 tablespoons granulated sugar

2 tablespoons roasted and finely chopped Oregon hazelnuts

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Muffins:

13/4 cups white all-purpose flour

1/2 cup granulated sugar

11/4 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

? teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 cup roasted and chopped Oregon hazelnuts

1 large egg

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup plain yogurt

1/3 cup orange juice concentrate

1/2 cup raisins, (optional)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

In small bowl, mix topping ingredients until well-blended. Set aside.

In small mixing bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and nutmeg. Stir in hazelnuts and set aside.

In large mixing bowl, whisk egg until blended. Add vegetable oil, yogurt and orange juice concentrate. Whisk until smooth.

Add dry ingredients, all at once, stirring just until flour is evenly moistened. Mix in raisins.

Prepare 1 standard-size muffin tin or 3 miniature muffin tins by generously spraying with nonstick spray, or by placing liners in the cups. Divide the batter evenly among the prepared pans, filling each cup a generous 3/4 full.

Sprinkle each muffin lightly with the topping mixture.

Bake in 400-degree oven for about 18 minutes for the standard-size muffins, or about 12 minutes for the miniature muffins, or until golden.

Remove from oven and cool for 5 minutes before removing from tins. Cool on racks.

To roast hazelnuts: Spread shelled hazelnuts in a shallow pan, Bake at 200 degrees C (hot oven) for 10-15 minutes, stirring nuts occasionally during baking. (From “Great Gourmet” by Expert Software)

Hazelnut-Chocolate Soup

4 servings

4 cups half-and-half

6 ounces semisweet chocolate or bittersweet chocolate

1/2 cup sugar

4 egg yolks, at room temperature

1/3 cup creme de cacao

3 tablespoons Frangelico (hazelnut liqueur)

1/2 cup whipping cream, lightly whipped

1/2 cup chopped hazelnuts, toasted

In a saucepan, combine half-and-half, chocolate and sugar and place over medium-low heat, stirring frequently, until the chocolate melts.

Beat the egg yolks in a small bowl, then whisk in about 1/2 cup of the chocolate mixture. Whisk the egg mixture into the soup and simmer, stir frequently, until the soup thickens slightly, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in the liqueurs.

To serve hot, ladle into warmed bowls, add a dollop of whipped cream, sprinkle with the hazelnuts, and serve immediately. Alternatively, pour into a container, tightly cover, and refrigerate for up to 5 days. Slowly reheat before garnishing and serving.

To serve cold, pour into a container, tightly cover, and refrigerate until chilled, at least 2 hours or as long as 5 days. Remove from the refrigerator about 20 minutes before serving. Ladle into chilled bowls and garnish as for hot soup. (From “Great Gourmet by Expert Software”)