Harvesting Overview
Harvesting with KTCC means turning Pennsylvania's wild hickory and other nut trees into income.
We pay harvesters by the gallon for nuts that meet our quality standards. You don’t need prior experience, just access to trees and a few hours of your time. Drop off your harvest at any KTCC aggregation hub across the state, and we handle the rest: processing, marketing, and sales through our cooperative supply chain.
If you’d like more information about harvesting, including identifying trees, grading nuts, pricing schedule, and any other information, please email us.
Yellowbud Hickory Harvester’s Guidebook
If you only get one thing from the Harvester’s section of our website, let it be the Yellowbud (Bitternut) Hickory Harvester’s Handbook.
If you want to sell KTCC your nuts, this handbook succinctly walks you through the important steps.
2026 Pricing & Payout Schedule
At harvesting events, all nuts will be paid $7.50/gallon. There will also be an option to trade for oil at 3 gallons of nuts for 1 5oz bottle. Some harvesting events are purely educational as there won't be enough nuts to sell or trade
Yellowbud (Bitternut) Hickory
| Grade | KTCC Members | Non-Members |
|---|---|---|
| Grade A | $7.50/gal | $6.00/gal |
| Grade B | $6.00/gal | $5.00/gal |
Chestnuts
| Grade | KTCC Members | Non-Members |
|---|---|---|
| Grade A | $7.50/gal | $6.00/gal |
| Grade B | $6.00/gal | $5.00/gal |
Hazelnuts
| Grade | KTCC Members | Non-Members |
|---|---|---|
| Grade A | $7.50/gal | $6.00/gal |
| Grade B | $6.00/gal | $5.00/gal |
Interest Form
Link or embed the interest form here?
Quality Standards(duplicated from handbook?)
(now that you found trees. Before you waste time harvesting and to better estimate payout. Make sure the nuts meet our grading scale)
Visual grade chart
Pics of examples and non-examples?
Float-test demo video link
Common defects gallery
Interactive tree map (can we link to the map Elodie shared?)
Can we link or embed the map here?
Interest Form
Link or embed the interest form here?
Equipment & safety (duplicated from handbook?)
Is this section necessary to break out of the handbook? CAn we just defer to handbook?
Drop-off logistics (list of aggregation hubs by town. Eventually link to Aggregation page or database entry.)
Map pins for each drop site
Hours, phone, QR code for check-in
Rules
hopefully some day just embedded aggregation hub entry list from database
Harvester FAQ
Map pins for each drop site
Hours, phone, QR code for check-in
Rules
hopefully some day just embedded aggregation hub entry list from database
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Contact and Support
Map pins for each drop site
Hours, phone, QR code for check-in
Rules
hopefully some day just embedded aggregation hub entry list from database
Interest Form
Link or embed the interest form here?
If you’d like more information about membership, including the crops and products we’re working with, products that are being explored, responsibilities and benefits of membership, and other information, please contact Bern.
Are you interested in becoming a Producer member of Keystone Tree Crops Cooperative?
You live in PA (or thereabouts). You’re growing the right crops. And you’re down for the cause!
Follow this link to get more instructions and information (new tab) about becoming a Producer member of KTCC. You can also access the member application there.
Yellowbud Harvester’s Guidebook
Everything you need to know about harvesting yellowbud (bitternut) hickory nuts for Keystone Tree Crop Cooperative