Allens Farm
Plaxtol
Nr Sevenoaks
Kent TN15 0QZ

Tel: (weekdays only)
01732 812215

Email:
info@cobnuts.co.uk


We are Organic
 O
Green Cobnuts 2011 - SOLD OUT - 



Golden Cobnuts 2011 - SOLD OUT -

 

Please Note we do not have any jobs available for fruit pickers or any other Farm Work at Allens Farm, so please do not email as we are not able to reply, Thank you.

Latest News - 1st May 2012

 

Due to the difficulties experienced last year and our advancing years (we are approaching 70) we have decided to reduce Allens Farm Organic Cobnuts under our direct control to approx 600 trees out of a total of 2,500. In the last few years we have not been able manage all the remaining 1,900 trees and as we have had an offer from our neighbour (one of the largest nut growers locally) to manage them, we have decided to pass the management over to him. We have withdrawn the two Nut Plats concerned from our organic acerage, however we will continue to offer Organic Green Cobnuts. As far as Golden Cobnuts are concerned they may not qualify as organic, although bearing in mind the difficulties with nut weevil last year, we think that the very benign treatments which will be used, and the fact that the nut is not itself subject to chemical contact means that this will not be a major concern to our customers. Your views on this would be welcome (email info@cobnuts.co.uk). The other point to bear in mind is that we are saving over 800 trees from being grubbed by passing over the management, (These are Cobnut trees which are falling into disrepair and therefore no longer useful). We hope by this strategy to preserve Allens Farm Cobnuts for future generations.  

 

This has been a difficult season for us. The wet spring caused a much greater proportion of nut malformation than usual. The malformed nuts were very difficult to identify from the outside and together with a bigger than average nut weevil infestation some of our customers did not get the quality they expect from Allens Farm Cobnuts. We really appreciated those who stuck with us and we did replace faulty nuts as far as we knew. We will not change our methods, or resort to spraying and we hope our customers will try again next year, and like us hope for a better season.

 With Very Best Wishes for Christmas and the New Year from Peter & Jill Webb (recovering steadily, thank you) 

 

 

Please phone 01732 812215 9am-5pm and leave a message, or send an email to info@cobnuts.co.uk if you want to contact us. The office is not manned everyday so some delay may occur.

 

 

The Nut Weevil  - Curculio nucum  (Robert Burton)

 
   
AS if watching the squirrels harvesting my walnuts was not enough, my hazelnuts have also been snatched from under my nose. The squirrels were not to blame; nor were dormice (which are not, alas, found in this part of the country), or nuthatches, neither tits nor woodpeckers. Like Macavity, this culprit works unseen, and the theft is revealed only after it has left the scene of crime.

The felon was the nut weevil. In past ages, when hazelnuts formed an important store of winter food rather than a Christmas extra, its presence in the ripened nut crop must have been a disaster.

The nut weevil, like all weevils, is a beetle with a long snout or proboscis which has positively elephantine proportions in the female. She uses it to drill a hole into the young nut as soon as it is set and the shell is still soft. A single egg is laid in the developing kernel, and the hole heals over so there is no sign of infestation. The egg hatches into a grub which feasts on the kernel until the nut falls. My father told me how he was once sitting by a hedge when he heard a faint, crunching sound. He looked around and realised it was coming from a hazelnut on the ground.

Then he saw a tiny hole open in the shell and a head emerge. The rest of the body squeezed out after it and the weevil grub crawled away under leaves. It would have buried itself and turned into a pupa.