It seems like only a short while ago that the Chestnut harvest finished, and here we are again with the very first of this year's crop already on the ground. This week will see the harvest begin in full swing.
This is how the plantations look at the moment. Large sheets of fine netting have been laid on the ground ready for the Chestnuts to drop. They will then be 'Hoovered' up by noisy machines that have now replaced human hands.
We don't eat a lot of Chestnuts. A few at present whilst they're still a novelty, then some at Christmas with the Turkey; which is obligatory. I also freeze a few which we have roasted throughout the year with either Chicken or Pork.
Chestnuts to me means log fires and frosty mornings, yet we're only mid-September. Has mother nature got her timings wrong?
46 comments:
I have never eaten a chestnut. I don't think I have ever even seen one, for that matter.
Surely, NZ has the perfect climate for growing them!
You would think so. Maybe they grow in the South, where it's colder. I must investigate. They are interesting looking beasts in their spiky coats!
Chestnuts mean Autumn, chilly mornings, and log fires to us, too. They do seem to be rather early, surely not something else that has been "tweaked" to give a better, and longer, harvest ?
This particular plantation has several varieties that produce over several weeks. The only 'tweaking', I think, has been achieved by cross pollination; not by Monsanto.
We have an old abandoned chestnut wood near us I shall have to go and check on progress - that is if the squirrels don't get there first.
perhaps Mother Nature IS telling us something...
Mother nature saw many of my beautiful Bramley cooking apples fall to the ground while we were away because they are early.
Regarding nuts, I love chestnuts, those growing ( in woods and not cultivated) around here are rather small this year, probably because we have had little rain in Derbyshire. Our cultivated hazel and cobnuts are empty too, while the walnuts were all stolen by squirrels last week. All in all a rubbish nut year!
My thoughts exactly!
Hazels and cobbs seem thin on the ground this year but we are heading for a bumper crop of sloes..
That is astounding - I had never thought that anyone had never eaten a chestnut.
I hate to say this, but we've had a bumper crop of just about everything this year. Not always thus!
It is not something we eat much of Cro - but might try them with the turkey.
From your last post Weave, I would say that cake seems to take preference over chestnuts!
not many sloes in Ayrshire....frost/rain /not enough insects, or a combination of those factors?
Chestnut Cake maybe?
It has been a nutty year (in many ways). My hickory is loaded and the squirrels will eat well this winter.
No chestnut comments from me Cro, just to let you know I googled "bottled figs" and your recipe appeared before me. My figs are now bottled in syrup with the appropriate dollop of Armagnac.....so thankyou. I am looking forward to taking them back to Yorkshire when I return for the winter....and will think of you when I am enjoying them.
Actually, chestnuts can be good bottled in syrup like figs too. H.I. used to make a fabulous chocolate cake which substituted finely ground almonds for flour. Chestnuts could work.
Thank you for introducing me to the notion of a chestnut plantation. It's fascinating to see how the gathering of the nuts now takes place.
When I first lived in NYC back in the 1960s, there were many sidewalk sellers of roasted chestnuts, and it was definitely a sign of autumn. They've pretty much disappeared from the scene in recent years. I think such vendors are still on London sidewalks.
It's interesting to learn of various crop results from the earlier comments, too.
I hope you enjoy them, we had a bottle just a few days ago. Delicious with a dollop of fromage frais.
I just had lunch of beef and boiled potatoes and red wine and no bloody vegetables. I think I'll come and live here. (Boiled potatoes don't count).
Roast chicken tonight here, with aubergine, delicata squash, pots, and green peppers; all roasted.
I might put up a picture of the noisy machine when it starts.
The squirrels here (red) are gathering all my hazel nuts at the moment.
They do sell chestnut flour here, although I've never bought it.
I'm going to attempt making apple leather with my bramleys. I'll let you know.... we have mountains.
Yes, but you've probably never eaten roast kiwi.
That top picture looks like monkey faces. How I wish we had edible chestnuts in our area.
Right outside the front door of my little apartment in St Remy is a tiny square containing many lovely trees which I now know are Chestnut trees. In the week that we have been here the leaves have begun to colour and fall and the ground is littered with chestnuts. now all we have to do is work out how to roast them ! Do you just put them in the oven? How do you know they are cooked, do the burst open ? .....and when they are cooked are they sweet or do you sprinkle them with salt?
Ha ha, I see what you mean. Chimpea Castanii.
Beautiful St Remy? Are you sure these aren't Horse Chestnuts? Don't eat those; you'll die! Do ask someone!
I hope Helsie has the habbit to come and read again the comments. for her own sake.
I emailed her to be sure...I hpoe she reads emails...
Whoa ! Thanks for the warning ! Can't tell which sort they are so will leave them alone and take your word for it that they are nice !!!.... The proper ones I mean!
Thanks for your kindness and caring Yael.
We have to thank Cro ;)
Those chestnuts look a bit like musicians from the Muppets to.me. Might just be appalling eyesight!
Mmmm, chestnuts. They've been nearly wiped out here in the US although breeders are crossing them with a Chinese variety to make them more hardy against the blight that took most of them down.
While I saw lots of hummingbirds here this summer, they seem to have pulled up stakes to start heading south, so we may be in for an early winter.
We have a disease here that is attributed to the USA. People are quite worried.
I love chestnuts. One of my favourite ways of consuming them is chestnut soup. Excellent!
And your statement "The older I get, the more I notice how quickly everything comes around again." is, unfortunately, a universal truth.
Oh Cro... how I envy you. I adore chestnuts... and can't get enough of them. But here in New Zealand it doesn't seem the same. I remember as a teenager visiting London and doing the "touristy" things and eating chestnuts that had been roasted over an open brazier in the street. Heavenly... I have since tried to recreate that and it has been a totally dismal failure... in fact I cannot get the darn things to roast, boil or steam enough to get them out of the shells and the furry bitter fuzz off. Alas I now have resorted to prepackaged "Asian jobbies" sigh.. I have a very good French product in my pantry in a tin waiting for a moment... but alas again I am still waiting.
I love the "plantations"... Oh to have a wander around those.
Jo in Auckland, NZ
OMG... I hope no-one has ever eaten roast Kiwi.... or admitted to it. Recently a real furore erupted as someone admitted to "taking" Kereru for food (Native Pigeon - totally a protected species) and this was made worse as this person ... from memory was an MP or somesuch person.
Jo in Auckland, NZ
I have an old book which states that a Dodo easily feeds 40 men.
Ain't that the truth.
I tend to boil ours, but we also have a chestnut roasting pan. It's just like a cheap steel frying pan with holes drilled in the bottom. It works well.
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