a tale of tails, tenacity, and tedium, as told by me, usually barefoot and bellowing

Sunday, October 9, 2011

Under The Chestnut Tree...

We have a few chestnut trees Mom and Dad planted.  The wild ones were destroyed before the Great Depression.  Many more blight resistant species were brought in and they grow very well.
They grow enclosed in a prickly burr that falls to the ground when ready.  Inside can be four to six nuts.  The horses love them, the squirrels love them and the people here like them, too.
The look of the bark, the leaves and the canopy remind of something timeless, almost prehistoric.  Bev found the trees selling for almost fifty dollars for a three foot tree and the nuts sell for $16.95 a pound!!!  And we have been giving them to the horses for treats!!

Bev was out early, with her tongs and feed sacks, picking up burrs for compost or firestarters in the fireplace.  The nuts were saved in another bucket.
I guess we're not the only ones that enjoy chestnuts.  These insects were finding something good on this pair.
Two five gallon buckets later, Bev is not finished...and this is not counting the ones that have been fed to horses.
Since chestnuts trees are few and far between, we hope to make seed bundles for the shop.  Instead of Johnny Appleseed maybe we will be called The Chestnut Sisters.

14 comments:

Michaele said...

I would love to be able to gather nuts on my land. Can you direct me to the post that tells about the "store"?

Dreaming said...

I've never actually seen a chestnut tree, but have seen chestnuts (roasting on an open fire...).
I love your idea of becoming Chestnut Sisters! I can just imagine the cute packages you will make!

OmaLindasOldeBaggsandStuftShirts said...

If we were voting....I'd say heck yeah on the Chestnut Sister seed packets.....love it. Linda

LindaG said...

Hmm. I think there may be chestnut trees around here. I've seen prickly burrs hanging in trees in other years and wondered what sort of flower they had been, haha.

Maybe I should find one of those trees and see if there are little chestnuts in them. :)

Farm Girl said...

I have a friend that when she was a little girl her grandmother had a chestnut grove. It was in Northern California. Every year men would come up from San Francisco and would buy every single chestnut. That was enough to keep her grandmother with a income to stay independent. I think you might be onto something.
They sure are pretty.

Nezzy (Cow Patty Surprise) said...

Come on and join me in singin'...

"Chestnuts rostin' on an open fire!"

Can't ya just smell 'em now???

God bless and have a super Sunday! :o)

knancy said...

So glad to see a post about chestnuts. So many people do not know what they are. When I was gowing up we had chestnuts, black walnuts and paw paw trees. I live in West Virginia. The chestnut trees we had were not the original - the blight took those. But we still ate chestnuts (we called them Chinese Chestnuts). We would make a cross mark in the shell and boil in salted water, cool, unshell and eat - creamy good! I am so glad to see thay are making a comeback. People are also starting to recognize paw paws.

Unknown said...

Very cool on the chestnuts! I like the name Chestnut sisters!

Stop by my blog for your award :)

Irene said...

There's a chestnut tree down the street. It's not very tall and there arn't very many nuts on it. I'm waiting for them to fall to the ground. I lived in a street with many chestnut trees when I was a kid. We saved the best and biggest chestnuts to play games with. Back then, we went to the forest and gathered all sorts of nuts that my mother roasted.

CiCi said...

That is so interesting. I hope you show pictures of what you display at the shop; I would like to see the seed bundles.

Gail said...

Knancy...Thanks for stopping by. We have paw paws, too. This is an Asian Chestnut, I believe. We have had the trees of both for years.

Allison...Thanks for visiting and commenting.

I couldn't reply to either of your emails. I prefer email to reply to each comment personally. My comments come to my emails but both of yours have . When it says that, my email will not come to you.

Thank you both for visiting.

Jeannelle said...

Interesting! Those bristly pods are really something. Never seen anything like that.

Susan Anderson said...

I love chestnuts, and I would definitely buy a bundle if I ran across them in a shop.

=)

labbie1 said...

And thus the new name for your store...The Chestnut Tree. A name involking longevity, generations of family planting for other generations to harvest and the warmth of the wood as furniture, the burrs for firestarters and the nuts--well, chestnuts roasting on and open fire...sing with me now...jack frost nipping at your nose...

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