Chestnut heaven

[stotRE]

As anyone been out collecting Spanish Chestnuts yet?

I was out today in Thetford (my T.A.O.R.) and managed to fill my left BDU trouser pocket with some nice juicy chestnuts and my wife was over the moon (she is a self confessed Chestnut addict.)

I find that tearing their pods open whilst wearing leather gloves an effective method for revealing Odins bounty,the tiddlers within scattered around so that my ancestors will have more Chestnut trees to harvest.

My wife already has a nice chocolate and chestnut cake recipe lined up and i smell a brannock de la castanea in my dutch oven as well speak.

Does anyone one else harvest these beauties (a daft question i know) and how do you use this wondeful bounty?

 

[spamel]

To be honest, I didn't get on with them roasted whole, although I am always willing to try new methods. When I was in Hameln, I could have filled carrier bags with sweet chestnuts as I knew the area where loads of huge mature trees grew, and the chestnuts were big and shiney. There is nothing more beautiful than a newly opened chestnut casing with that rich brown shiney nut casing peeking out! Awesome!

 

[falcon]

There are a number of trees on my dog walking route through the woods and I always take my fill. I've noticed that so far this year the crop is much smaller....which has made me speculate that perhaps at a key stage of development during July we had not a lot of sun and a deluge of rain....

 

[stotRE]

To be honest, I didn't get on with them roasted whole, although I am always willing to try new methods. When I was in Hameln, I could have filled carrier bags with sweet chestnuts as I knew the area where loads of huge mature trees grew, and the chestnuts were big and shiney. There is nothing more beautiful than a newly opened chestnut casing with that rich brown shiney nut casing peeking out! Awesome!

I'm the same,my misses eats them raw (bloody spanish foreigner ) and was over the moon with my bounty,tommorrow i will be out again with a big sack.

I love chestnuts in cakes and bannocks and also my wife now is reminding me of her chestnut soup...................yum

 

[stotRE]

There are a number of trees on my dog walking route through the woods and I always take my fill. I've noticed that so far this year the crop is much smaller....which has made me speculate that perhaps at a key stage of development during July we had not a lot of sun and a deluge of rain....

Well i am un convinced as the ones i were picking today were as big as my thumb but then again there where alot of 'bent'ones.

 

[spamel]

Ratbag took his kids up Canon Hall the other week, and I met him up there with my brats! The idea was to thrash them and get them good and tired, but we had fun. We saw a sweet chestnut tree, and the nuts were really under developed. They obviously weren't ready yet as they were a creamy colour inside and very soft, but also thee wasn't anything inside the nut husk.

 

[JonnyP]

Loads of sweet chestnuts here, never seen so many, squirrels are working overtime...Also found a new path through the forest and found this chestnut tree which is the biggest I have ever seen....

 

[spamel]

Some nice looking staves in there!

 

[xylaria]

The only ones I have seen have been tiny tiny chestnuts Far too small to do anything with I think.

 

[spamel]

Maybe they had their steroids knicked by your hazelnuts! They were huge!!

 

[British Red]

Junior Pickett looks happy there

Thats a stunning tree our Jon - how was the bark? I love chestnut bark - should have been awesome on that fellah!

Red

 

[JonnyP]

Junior Pickett looks happy there

Thats a stunning tree our Jon - how was the bark? I love chestnut bark - should have been awesome on that fellah!

Red

Ahh....Was too busy rolling them prickley things under our feet to notice the bark....I will be going back there though. I thought I knew the forest well, but it still brings up new surprises. Will try to get some better shots of the tree, bark n all.... There was an old stump under the tree which the squirrels were using to open the chestnuts....Does anyone know how they actually get to the nuts though. Do they roll them under their boots like we do...?

 

[spamel]

Squirrels have really tough skin, as Ratbag said to me at the weekend when we were skinning a few (greys!), the leather would be bullet proof! I don't suppose they would feel the prickles.

 

[xylaria]

Maybe they had their steroids knicked by your hazelnuts! They were huge!!

But at least we found a natural alternative to putting live rounds in a fire for an evenings entertainment.:BlueTeamE

Ahh Chestnuts exploding on an open fire.

 

[spamel]

Wow!! If Hazelnuts are anything to go by, we'll get mushroom clouds from chestnuts!