Yellowbud Hickory 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.
Upcoming Hickory Harvesting Events
Join us for yellowbud hickory harvesting! KTCC's hickory oil is pressed from nuts gathered by foragers across the state. There are currently no producing orchards of yellowbud hickory, but its abundance is all around us. If you'd like to harvest and sell nuts to KTCC, this is the perfect opportunity to learn how to ID, harvest good quality nuts, and plug into our operation. We will have oil to share and love harvesting together in community. Hope to see you there!
Click links below for more details
RSVP REQUIRED! (Event Oct. 16th in Reading welcomes walk-ins)
Contact and Support
Please email us at harvest@ktcc.coop for any questions or support you may need around harvesting.
Yellowbud Hickory Harvester’s Handbook
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 find and sell yellowbud hickory nuts, this handbook succinctly walks you through the important steps. This will answer lots of questions such as how to identify and find yellowbud hickory trees, best ways to harvest, and more. We especially want to point out pages 14 and 15 for our current quality standards.
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 one 5oz bottle at gathering events. Some harvesting events are purely educational as there won't be enough nuts to sell or trade.
You can deliver nuts to one of our aggregation hubs.
To learn about how we qualify grade A and grade B nuts, check out pages 14 and 15 in the harvester’s handbook
Yellowbud Hickory
| Grade | KTCC Members | Non-Members |
|---|---|---|
| Grade A | $7.50/gal | $6.00/gal |
| Grade B | $6.00/gal | $5.00/gal |
Contact and Support
Please email us at harvest@ktcc.coop for any questions or support you may need around harvesting.
Interest Form
If you’re interested in harvesting yellowbud hickory nuts, the first step is the read the Harvester’s Handbook, and the second step is to fill out this interest form. Then, we can direct you to your closest drop-off location and answer any questions you may have.
Contact and Support
Please email us at harvest@ktcc.coop for any questions or support you may need around harvesting.