Chestnut trees mature slowly. At about year ten, the prickly burrs of chestnut trees appear, often with deflated looking chestnuts within. At about year fifteen, the deflated chestnuts have begun to fill. Often, a small nut is pinched between two larger ones. By year thirty, there are thousands of burrs well filled with nuts littering the ground after a windstorm, as in the picture above. That is a lot of food lying on the ground.

Some people who have planted chestnut trees from our orchard are getting a few nuts. (Some people’s trees have died. There are suggestions for them further on.)

What to do with chestnuts? They are labour intensive to shell, and the result is a food material that most of us have little experience (a blight killed all North American chestnuts in the early 20th century, destroying a beloved staple).

To help fill this cultural void and upon request, I held a “Chestnut School” in October, inviting a few people who are excited by chestnuts as one of our island’s food security strategies.

We gathered in the Saxifrage chestnut orchard with thick gloves to pick up the chestnuts fallen by strong winds and free them from their prickly burrs. People took these home. Then we went to the kitchen to enjoy the chestnut-based foods that my family has settled on for our regular menu: roasted chestnuts, chestnut-miso soup, Dutch Baby made with chestnut flour, chestnut liqueur, chestnut brownies, chestnut cookies and spaetzl noodles. We focused on preparing two forms which can the main ingredient in a number of recipes, chestnut puree and chestnut flour. We also shelled a lot of chestnuts.

The recipes and processes we explored are in the pdf attached to this article. Some are inspired by existing recipes, many are completely made up. There are lots more recipes from all around the world in The Chestnut Cook Book by Annie Bhagwandin. I highly recommend it.

For those whose trees died or if you are new to this idea….

No worries! Plant more! We have hundreds and Whitney will dig them for you for $20/tree. ()

The seedlings are the offspring of two types of hybrid. “Paragon” is a cross between a North American and a European chestnut. “Layeroka” originated at a BC nut farm. It is either a cross with a Chinese or with a Chinese and European chestnut. It might need another variety to pollinate, another reason to plant a few trees at a time.

When you plant or replant, consider these suggestions:
• Be patient. These trees live for hundreds of years but take more than a decade to come into significant production. After that, every year there is more. The chestnut forests of North America dropped nuts several feet deep in mast years! Remember that this is a long-term food security strategy,
• Give them a good site. Chestnuts like sunlight and well drained soil. They will survive in less than perfect sites but not bear as much.
• Protect the trees from deer who find the high-nutrient leaves to be delicious.
• Make sure you have at least two viable trees. Trees bear male and female flowers but require genetically distinct pollen for pollination.
• The younger trees seem to transplant more successfully, especially in low-care situations. The older/larger ones will bear sooner but require weekly water in the summer like any other young tree.

Imagine your trees, one hundred years old, feeding humans and animals alike.

You can reach Whitney at whitneyvanderleestgmail.com