Thanks! Almost all the seeds I got that day germinated. If I have enough patience and some really good luck, I may see some edible figs one day! 
I am going to take the photos tomorrow of my seedling and post so you can see my forest :D

Nice big figs!

i think i have 185-15 from USAD/UCD.. not sure.. labels got all erased. there was some large light fig with dark amber pulp that tasted pretty good, but who knows that that is. 

Hi Manny, yes that's my chestnut orchard which generates a large portion of my farm income.  I have 226 trees in that block (plus some interplants) and have some younger trees in two other blocks.  These are mostly Italian marroni varieties. :)

That's fantastic! Roasted Chestnuts (Castanhas) have long been part of the Portuguese tradition.

harvey, what do you do with chestnuts? i know up in ny, people eat them, but i rarely see them being sold down here. is there big market for chestnuts?

Pete, for the chestnut... You will found them in Asian market, especially Korean supermarket......
When I was lived in Atlanta ,GA.... I always get the chestnut (raw) in the Korean market near my place....
Hope that will help.

Ong


Jakarta, Indonesia

Pete, most people roast chestnuts and many of my customers go through large quantities, apparently enjoying them every night and ordering about 10 pounds a week.  Some people eat them boiled.  I have one Korean customer who orders many gift packages for many of her friends and we've corresponded a fair amount.  It's largely a cultural thing, especially in her case, as she made reference to the sound it makes when biting the shell (whereas most people peel chestnuts before any biting goes on).  I would say the chestnut market is relatively small while the supply is smaller than demand.  Italian chestnuts are what are most popular and imported the most, though the marroni class is not exported from Italy (they no longer produce enough for their own needs).  Quite a few chestnuts are also imported from Korea.  Those are earlier and larger but the texture is different and, in my opinion, not as flavorful.  Some Chinese chestnuts are also imported and those are also quite a bit different.

My chestnuts are very popular especially with folks of Italian ancestry.  Today I received an email for a guy begging for me to find some more marroni that he could buy as a gift for his mother who immigrated from northern Italy.  He said she had some of my wonderful chestnuts at some party.  I get that kind of feedback several times a year which makes the crazy work pretty rewarding.

Manny, one interesting thing I observed during my visit of Portugal in 2004 is that the vendors there throw salt onto the chestnuts while nearing completion of roasting.  I big puff of steam and/or smoke immediately arises.  Of course, some salt remains on ones fingers while pealing but it seems odd to me since the kernels really aren't getting much salt, if any.  Made me wonder if it was more for show.  I have not seen or heard of that being done anywhere else in the world.

The use of salt must have been for show or a regional thing. I don't remember that being done even on the East Coast with large Portuguese communities.  Heres two good examples of roasted chestnuts in Portugal.



Manny


   

Manny, those chestnuts on the left have been roasted with salt.  I saw the salt used up near Chaves where I attended a chestnut converence, Lisboa, and Madeira.  They also all used pages ripped out of a telephone book to make a cone to hold the chestnuts.  That is also the only place I've seen that done and I thought it was a pretty good idea! :)

I'm adding some photos taken in Madeira.  I can find more, probably, if I look hard enough.

May be in your area next Wednesday....just a warning...LOL     What are your hours of operation...and you don't have any firearms....???

I don't have public hours of operation and I do have firearms.  This is the Delta, not San Francisco!

The home traditional/regional grilled chestnut preparation requires :

Cut them first, then

Soak  in a heavy brine for 5 minutes,

Grill inside clay or metallic holed heavy pan on a good fire of  dry charcoal from oak cork wood

Agitate pan throwout the process sprinkle coarse salt a couple of times  and in 5/10 minutes they ready

White bluish color on the outer shells indicate they are about ready and comes from the charcoal distillates and smoke.
Following this process in gas or electric ovens, you never get those colors.

I love salt on watermelon.

Harvey was that 184-15 ripe when we visited?

You mean the particular photo above?  That photo was taken earlier, I believe, and is less than fully ripe (gets darker and even Martin would enjoy it if blindfolded!).  I had ripe main crop figs from 184-15 by July.  I don't really remember much about the breba crop but had a lot of breba figs on its branches in March.