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When I was a kid growing up in Brooklyn, N.Y. my parents looked forward to the late fall and early winter when the hot Chestnut peddler came around with his two wheeled push cart that had some way to keep the chestnuts hot. I think it was a charcoal brazier, but whatever he used also created steam so we could hear his whistle as he came through the neighborhood.
Once I had someone ask me whether or not Horse Chestnuts were edible and the answer is no! Neither are the Ohio Buckeye nuts which are often mixed up with Horse Chestnuts and are sometimes referred to as “conkers”. I suggested she use them to make jewelry.
In Switzerland and France they use these nuts for whitening silk, hemp, flax and wool. Those who have been to beer gardens in Bavaria will usually see this type of tree in the outside beer garden for shade.
The kind my parents ate are called Sweet Chestnuts and are not to be confused with either of the above mentioned nuts or even the Asian Water Chestnuts which are not grown on a tree, but are the root of a water plant.
One can tell the difference between the “conkers” and the sweet edible chestnuts is that the “conkers” has no points on their flattened smooth tops and are much smaller in size than sweet chestnuts which do have points on their smooth tops.
The ripe edible chestnuts are picked in the fall and the best and easiest way to prepare them is to roast the ripe nuts in embers. If you are lost in the woods this knowledge may well serve as survival food, providing you happen upon a sweet chestnut tree and have some matches to start a fire. Apparently one can eat a large quantity of them.
One can also boil the nuts after removing the outer shell and once they are fairly soft one can mash them like potatoes.
In our house at Thanksgiving and Christmas we always had Chestnut stuffing and it was quite good.
Today, edible chestnuts mostly come from Italy or other parts of Europe and one can usually find them in specialty markets or directly from importers on the internet.
Yet you can grow sweet chestnut trees which grow from 50 to 100 feet tall. At one time these trees dominated the forests of North America until they were hit by blight. However there are new species now such as the Chinese and American chestnut crosses (Nevada and Colossal) and this has renewed the interests of many organic gardeners who want to put something special in their tree landscaping plans that also will produce a harvest.
“Tread the Earth Lightly” and in the meantime… May your day be filled with…Peace, Light and Love,
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Author Bio Box: Arlene Wright Correll
 For more gardening or cooking information click http://www.learn-america.com/
To see Arlene’s Gardens and to read her gardening diaries and to take a walk through her pictorial garden or click on Arlene’s Books where you can download or buy her gardening & cook books, including her new book, “The ABC’s of Wine and Beer Making”. Many of her articles written for Greenthumbarticles have paintings she has created of the subject and they can be seen at her “How to Do It” site. Remember to check out her artwork, especially of her fruits and vegetables. Many of her paintings are sold internationally and many of her works of art have been reproduced on note cards, post cards and other functional items and you can get Giclee prints of her artwork starting as low as $11.89 Arlene says, “All my royalties from the sale of my books, art, etc. go to the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and I thank you for visiting my sites.”
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