Cserszeg Hazelnut

At just 29 years old, Gergő has already lived through more stories than most his age. Originally trained as a carpenter, he achieved excellent results in international competitions and worked abroad for several years. Upon returning home, he initially 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 Turkish hazelnuts: the Roman, which becomes golden, crunchy, and pure in flavour after roasting; the Barcelona, which is 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 trimmings, spring focuses on gentle plant protection and weed-free soil cultivation without herbicides, summer is spent preparing smooth soil surfaces for the harvest, and autumn is dedicated to 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 tremendous help with cracking and sorting the hazelnuts, while his mother supports not only with these tasks but also with sales.

Gergő works with a farming philosophy that prioritises sustainability and respect for nature. Instead of using herbicides, he keeps the rows weed-free with mechanical tools, protecting the soil’s ecosystem. He believes in prevention when it comes to plant protection: rather than using strong chemicals, he walks through the plantation daily, monitoring the bushes’ condition and responding in time. Organic matter is replenished by composting and reusing local manure, while trimmings are ground and returned to the soil. He uses modern tools to ease the workload but remains committed to ensuring every process is transparent and human-scaled.

Cserszeg Hazelnut Oil
The cold-pressed oil from Turkish hazelnuts 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 creamy 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 addition.
Hazelnut oil is available in 100 ml and 50 ml bottles.

Roasted Turkish 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 crunchy. With each bite, you’ll taste a hint of “Nutella”.
The roasted hazelnuts are available in both natural and lightly salted versions. The latter uses a pinch of salt to further enhance the hazelnuts’ natural aroma and bold flavour.
The product is completely additive-free, made in small batches to ensure it’s always fresh and crunchy.

You can find the hazelnut products at the Cserszegtomaj Delicacies stall:
●    Hévíz Farmers’ Market
●    Liliomkert Market

Imagine that where Lake Balaton now lies, there once stretched a vast lake over 400 times larger and deeper than a thousand metres – the Pannonian Lake. Its story is not just a fascinating geological past but a legacy that continues to shape us today: our mineral resources, fertile soils, and even some legends trace back to it. Discover how an ancient lake transformed Transdanubia, leaving an indelible mark!

The gigantic Pannonian Lake – at its peak over 400 times the size of Lake Balaton – rippled through our region for millions of years (approximately 12 to 8.5 million years ago).

As surrounding mountain ranges rose, the water body gradually became cut off from the world’s oceans, its waters slowly freshened, and its basin filled with sediments over time.

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

The Pannonian Lake didn’t appear out of nowhere, nor did it emerge overnight in the Carpathian Basin. It formed over millions of years, separating from larger water bodies due to the slow, perpetual dance of tectonics and changing precipitation patterns.

Its “birthdate” can be considered the moment it appeared as an independent water body, almost entirely cut off from the global oceans.

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 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, filling it in and “escorting it off the stage” over approximately 6.5 million years.

From this sediment, the Pannonian formations we know today – largely composed of sand, clay, and silt – were created. These formations 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 Pannonian Somló Formation, found across Transdanubia, consists of clay marl, finely layered siltstone, and fine-grained sand, forming fertile soils.

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

Interestingly, due to the orientation of the major rivers that carried out the bulk of the sedimentation (flowing from NW, N, NE), the Pannonian Lake filled in towards the south-southeast: like a time-lapse film, it seems to have retreated from what is now Hungary. 

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, character, and fauna – cannot be considered successors of the Pannonian Lake.