Cserszeg Hazelnut

At 29, Gergő has already lived through more stories than most people his age. Originally trained as a carpenter, he achieved excellent results in international competitions and worked abroad for several years. Upon returning home, he planned to open his own workshop but eventually turned to agriculture, purchasing a hazelnut plantation in Cserszegtomaj. Since then, as a young farmer supported by his family, he has been building his business, focusing on sustainable farming and artisanal processing.
The plantation grows three varieties of hazelnuts: the Roman, which turns golden, crisp, and pure in flavour when roasted; the Barcelona, larger and bolder, often processed into oil; and the Cosworth, primarily used as a pollinator but also sold in-shell.

The hazelnut plantation provides plenty of work throughout the year. Winter involves pruning and composting the cuttings, spring focuses on gentle plant protection and weed-free soil cultivation, summer is for preparing smooth soil surfaces for harvest, and autumn brings the harvest itself.
Processing the crop is a lengthy process: sorting, cracking, roasting, peeling, selecting, and packaging follow one another, with nearly every family member contributing. For instance, Gergő’s grandmother is a huge help with cracking and sorting the hazelnuts, while his mother assists not only with these tasks but also with sales.

Gergő embraces a farming philosophy prioritising sustainability and respect for nature. He keeps the rows weed-free using mechanical tools instead of herbicides, protecting the soil's ecosystem. He believes in prevention for plant protection: he walks through the plantation daily, monitoring the bushes and responding promptly rather than resorting to strong chemicals. Organic matter is replenished through compost and local manure, while prunings are ground and returned to the soil. He uses modern tools to ease the workload but insists on keeping every process transparent and human-scaled.

Cserszeg Hazelnut Oil
Cold-pressed hazelnut oil is a true speciality: produced in small quantities exclusively from selected, roasted hazelnuts. The oil is golden in colour, with an intense aroma and a distinctive flavour – just a few drops can transform a simple dish into something extraordinary.
Its uses are versatile: it adds a soft, nutty taste to salad dressings, serves as an elegant topping for cream soups, and is a secret ingredient in desserts. Rich in unsaturated fatty acids, natural vitamins, and minerals, the oil is not only delicious but also a valuable nutritional choice.
Hazelnut oil is available in 100 ml and 50 ml bottles.

Roasted Hazelnuts
The hand-picked hazelnuts grown in Cserszegtomaj become truly irresistible after careful roasting. During the process, the Roman and Barcelona varieties turn golden and crispy. With each bite, you’ll taste a hint of “Nutella”.
Roasted hazelnuts are available in both natural and lightly salted versions. The pinch of salt in the latter enhances the hazelnut’s natural aroma and bold flavour.
The product is completely additive-free, made in small batches to ensure it remains fresh and crunchy.

You can find the hazelnut products at the Cserszegtomaji Delicacies stand:
●    Hévíz Farmers’ Market
●    Liliomkert Market

Imagine a time when the area now occupied by Lake Balaton was once home to a vast lake over a thousand metres deep – covering an area 400 times larger! The story of the Pannonian Sea is not only a fascinating geological past but also a legacy that continues to shape us today: our mineral resources, fertile soils, and even certain legends trace back to it. Discover how an ancient lake transformed Transdanubia, leaving an indelible mark!

The gigantic Pannonian Sea – at its largest extent, over 400 times the size of Lake Balaton – existed in our region for millions of years (approximately 12 to 8.5 million years ago).

As the surrounding mountains rose, the water mass gradually became isolated from the world’s oceans, its waters slowly freshened, and its basin filled with sediments.

Thanks to its isolation, its ecosystem was unique, home to numerous endemic species.

The Pannonian Sea didn’t appear out of nowhere; it didn’t emerge in an instant in the Carpathian Basin. Instead, it formed over millions of years, gradually separating from larger water bodies due to the slow, perpetual dance of tectonics and changing precipitation patterns.

Its “birth date” can be considered the moment it became an independent water body, almost entirely cut off from the global seas.

In some places, its depth exceeded a thousand metres, while elsewhere, shallower areas like lagoons, river deltas, and isolated small lakes created a diverse aquatic environment.
During periods of higher water levels, rocky shorelines formed along the mountain edges, traces of which can still be found in places like the Keszthely Hills and the Mecsek Mountains.

Despite its vast size and depth, rivers flowing in from the Alpine–Carpathian mountain ranges carried enormous amounts of sediment, gradually filling the basin and “ushering it off the stage” over approximately 6.5 million years.

This sediment gave rise to the Pannonian formations we know today, composed mainly of sand, clay, and siltstone – which contain important mineral resources (e.g., oil) and aquifers – and are a defining feature of much of Transdanubia’s surface, including the Zala Hills.

The fertile soils of the Pannonian formations, such as the Somló Formation, consist of clay marl, finely layered siltstone, and fine-grained sand deposits.

In these Pannonian layers, you might even find the so-called “Tihany goat’s hoof” from folklore, which is actually the worn shell remnant of a mussel species (Congeria ungalacaprae).

Interestingly, due to the direction of the major rivers (flowing from NW, N, NE), the Pannonian Sea filled south–southeastwards: imagine it retreating from modern-day Hungary in a time-lapse.
As a result, smaller lakes persisted for a long time in areas like present-day Slavonia in Croatia and northern Serbia, but these – vastly different in size, nature, and fauna – cannot be considered successors to the Pannonian Sea.