|
|
Post by castanea on Oct 14, 2015 15:31:30 GMT -5
|
|
|
|
Post by philagardener on Oct 14, 2015 18:06:17 GMT -5
castanea , those are amazing! What are some of your favorite recipes for these?
|
|
|
|
Post by steev on Oct 14, 2015 18:25:32 GMT -5
Indeed, those are beauties.
Years ago, I was in a part of Chico where the street trees were chestnuts; nuts all over.
|
|
|
|
Post by flowerweaver on Oct 14, 2015 18:31:35 GMT -5
Wow! How old is the tree from which those came? In what way can you preserve them? I like them in stuffing, and of course...roasted over an open fire  |
|
|
|
Post by castanea on Oct 14, 2015 21:00:01 GMT -5
castanea , those are amazing! What are some of your favorite recipes for these? We don't usually use them in many recipes. We don't because I have more than 200 different chestnut trees and I focus on taste testing everything to evaluate them for further breeding efforts. That takes up so much time and refrigerator space that I don't do much else with them. To properly taste test them I eat them raw, roasted/baked and boiled. |
|
|
|
Post by castanea on Oct 14, 2015 21:01:25 GMT -5
Indeed, those are beauties. Years ago, I was in a part of Chico where the street trees were chestnuts; nuts all over. A couple of those trees have very tasty nuts. Unfortunately one of the best trees across from the Bidwell Mansion was cut out a few years ago. |
|
|
|
Post by castanea on Oct 14, 2015 21:07:28 GMT -5
Wow! How old is the tree from which those came? In what way can you preserve them? I like them in stuffing, and of course...roasted over an open fire That's from a graft that's about 4 years old. The original tree grows in the Sierra Nevada foothills. I just refrigerate them long enough to do taste tests and then I keep some for planting. I spend most of my energy on evaluating and breeding them. |
|
|
|
Post by castanea on Oct 14, 2015 21:26:44 GMT -5
|
|
|
|
Post by steev on Oct 14, 2015 23:09:56 GMT -5
Indeed, those are beauties. Years ago, I was in a part of Chico where the street trees were chestnuts; nuts all over. A couple of those trees have very tasty nuts. Unfortunately one of the best trees across from the Bidwell Mansion was cut out a few years ago. Well, of course it was; what else would you do with a wonderful, venerable tree? It may be, one hopes, that the internet will facilitate less of that sort of ignorant, destructive behavior, although contemporary seed-import laws bode ill. I have one Chinese-American cross (Collossal?) that isn't fruiting yet. I have no clue about chestnut processing/usage, guess it's time to start up that learning curve. I've got so much land, relative to my needs, that it's a good idea to broaden my storage crops. Any sort of storage crops are a good idea; I think nuts are primo, since I can only deal with so much Summer fruit. I'm looking to focus on nuts as wind-break trees around planting circles of grain or veggies, irrigated with water cannons only when there is no wind (early morning). |
|
|
|
Post by castanea on Oct 16, 2015 9:06:37 GMT -5
Unlike walnuts and many other nuts, chestnuts have a very short storage life without refrigeration. In parts of Europe they can store them in cool damp caves, but the better option for dry areas is to let them dry out and then either grind them up to use as flour or rehydrate for soups and stews.
The park north of the Post Office in Chico used to have a nice old chestnut tree (and other nice old trees) until they cut almost all of the old trees down a few years ago and replaced them with young boring trees.
|
|
|
|
Post by mskrieger on Oct 19, 2015 13:34:11 GMT -5
castanea Chestnut breeding! Do you sell/share young grafted trees? I just had some local chestnuts and they were fantastically delicious, but less than 1/2 the size of the ones in your picture. (Supposedly wild harvested, but I have my doubts, unless they were hybrids somebody abandoned.)
|
|
|
|
Post by castanea on Oct 19, 2015 23:04:30 GMT -5
castanea Chestnut breeding! Do you sell/share young grafted trees? I just had some local chestnuts and they were fantastically delicious, but less than 1/2 the size of the ones in your picture. (Supposedly wild harvested, but I have my doubts, unless they were hybrids somebody abandoned.) I don't sell anything but I do give seed nuts and scion wood to people who want it. |
|
|
|
Post by steev on Oct 20, 2015 1:13:37 GMT -5
We'll discuss; although I've little clue about chestnuts, I can dry virtually anything, on the farm, and I think chestnuts are quite can-able, as well.
The fact that they are relatively trouble-free trees that drop their nuts for harvest is attractive, since I'm getting a tad leery about going up ladders (well, no: it's coming down off ladders, unintentionally, that gives me the wim-wams).
Have you given attention to pecans?
|
|
|
|
Post by philagardener on Oct 20, 2015 5:37:30 GMT -5
The fact that they are relatively trouble-free trees that drop their nuts for harvest is attractive, since I'm getting a tad leery about going up ladders (well, no: it's coming down off ladders, unintentionally, that gives me the wim-wams). Of course, in CA you can always shake the trees!  |
|
|
|
Post by 12540dumont on Oct 26, 2015 14:16:30 GMT -5
Castanea do you have any French chestnuts in your collection, from the Ardéche region?
|
|
