I know some of you grow chestnuts (I'm looking at you, Harvey!), I was wondering how one harvests with the greatest ease?

The house next to mine is semi-abandoned (long story) and has an old, sad looking chestnut tree in the back yard, looks like it'll be starting to drop fruit before long. I roasted and ate a handful last year after getting them out of the spiny shells, pretty tasty. Therein lies my question: How the heck does one get the chestnuts out of the husk without being impaled? I used two pairs of pliers to tear open the husk...a lot of work!

Also, it's not a horse chestnut, I know what those look like.

Thanks!

It's best if they just fall from the bur, but they don't all cooperate. A thick pair of gloves and grabing it between the hands and a twist works good for me. If it should open easy if the bur is still green and doesn't open easy just let it dry a day or so.

Kelby, some varieties drop free of the burr readily and that is very important to a commercial grower.  I previously grew a lot of a variety that took at least twice as long to harvest as the main variety I grow now.

I use heavy boots to help step on the burrs and split them open if they haven't split apart already.  I mostly use Best 7066 (not 7066R) gloves that seem to do about the best but spines still get through.  For large quantities, I also use Holt's Nut Wizard to help pick up loose nuts.  It is important to pick up daily to prevent spoilage.  Also, dry burs are more difficult to split open than very dry ones.  In your area there are probably weevils (not here, thank God) and prompt harvest helps getting the chestnuts before weevil eggs in the nut hatch.  To destroy them at this stage, place chestnuts in water 120-125F for 20 minutes and then refrigerate.

Good luck!

P.S. Some early varieties have been dropping here for 10 days and I've just discovered a tree of Chinese varieties (multi-graft) has dropped the first significant crop for me.

Harvey,

I have the weevils here, and get the small white grub in some of mine. I try to pick up as soon as i can. but most I consume I try to knock straight from the tree and pick up then on a day when I see alot of burs open with the seed still in. Most mine fall free from the bur. Are you saying that white  weevil grub gets in them after on the ground?  Guess I assumed they were already in them when on the tree.

I've knocked chestnuts down from the tree to find little white grubs in them.  Not sure what they are called.

Good info, thanks all! Last year I just picked up what was on the ground, unfortunately the entire county squirrel population appears to know of this tree, so the ones that just fall out of the bur are few and far between. I did see the weevil grubs in some of them.

I'll have to pick up a good, thick pair of gloves and have it. Maybe I'll knock some down and leave them in the garage for a day or two.

I tried to ID the tree species last year, I thought it looked like an American chestnut (unlikely, I know) but common sense says it's just a Chinese or a Hybrid. Harvey, would you be able to ID the species if I get pictures of the leaves and fruit?

I planted some Chinese and American chestnuts 17 years ago.   I was impressed by how fast they grew  compared to walnut trees.
One grafted Chinese chestnut was an incredible producer (a bushel of chestnuts/year).  The American chestnut just the odd nut maybe a dozen or so nuts per tree. 

I found most chestnuts would pop out of their burrs on their own if not I would use Harvey's technique and step on them with serious boots (don't try it with running shoes).  As mentioned by others the key is to pick them up before they sit  on the ground too long.  I wash them and then dry them in the sun and dehydrate them until you can press your thumb in about 1/3.  Then put in plastic bags with holes and refrigerate.  They last 9 months this way and we use them roasted or in cooking.  They are great in so many recipes.

Sad news is that we are in a chestnut blight area.  So I expected the American Chestnut to catch the blight at some point but sadly my grafted Chinese chestnut that was in close proximity to the American Chestnut caught the blight and died very quickly this year.  The American Chestnut is still standing but the main trunk got it.   The other Chinese chestnuts that are 100 yards away have not been affected by the blight. fingers crossed.

Kelby,

Not Harvey, but I have seen a lot of both native American and Asian chestnuts. Most the American have been suckers from the stumps of old trees that got blight. The ones I grow are supposedly Hybrid but they show more Asian character to me.  On the leaf Chinese would normally have a hair like fuzz on the underside, American would be smooth. The American  leaf seems narrower with the teeth on the leaf curved somewhat.
Here is a good reference
http://www.acf.org/find_a_tree.php

Kelby, I'm not that good at ID but can forward to a friend, if you wish.  Getting pretty busy right now, so don't have much time.

Ed, those are the weevils I spoke of.  Pick up and treat with hot water and don't leave a single chestnut behind laying on the ground.  Those grubs go into the soil and bring you the beetles which lay eggs next year.  A friend in Ohio sprays for them, when needed (Sevin, I believe).

Pino, chestnuts store better (longer) if they are not dried out that much, in my experience.  I should harvest at least 8,000 pounds this year and all go into refrigeration the same day they are harvested.  Refrigeration at 30F is ideal (freeze at 25-26F) and for homeowners, storage in their refrigerator's meat drawer is usually the best spot.  More species of molds grow above 32F.

Thanks for the tip Harvey, I will try storing them without drying them as much!  

Hi Harvey
What do you do with all that chestnuts? Do you sell them? I usually order about 75-100lbs every year. If your selling them I would be interested. Thanks

Yes, chestnuts are one of my crops (second place income wise behind alfalfa, also grow pomegranates and figs, of course).  I have been selling online for about 10 years, shipping about 1,000 packages a year with 196 boxes going out one day last year.  Subscribe for ordering updates at http://www.chestnuts.us if you wish.  I'm afraid I will soon be working 18 hour days....

Love chestnuts raw, or roasted....but how do you get the brown papery covering off the nut?  It's a major PITA to peel that paper off the roasted kernels.  I can only find, and then eat chestnuts bought from a store (usually around Thanksgiving), and they are probably stale, and dried out compared to those fresh chestnuts that are harvested from a tree.  I have never tasted a "fresh" chestnut....only store-bought.  Is there a big difference?

I cut/score a shallow cross into the outer shell, then soak the nuts in hot water for about a hour.  Drain, put them in a baking dish, and roast them in the oven until lightly toasted.  When cool, the nuts can be broken apart by hand, but the brown paper clings to the kernel, and it's difficult to remove.  It's annoying!  What am I doing wrong?

Expert, chestnut-eaters....please advise.


Frank

Frank
It may not be your fault.  When the chestnuts are old and dried out they don't roast very well and re-soaking them helps a bit but they still don't roast very well and the inner skin tends to sticks and it makes it a pain.

The answer is to get fresh chestnuts they peel easily if roasted enough just so the outer skin is slightly burnt.  However I find chestnuts taste and roast better if cured by slightly sun drying them and I find they taste even sweeter if they were exposed to frost before they ripened.

If you can get fresh chestnuts that is great.  If not they are a beautiful tree if you have room.
  

Pino-

Thanks for the explanation.  I suspected that the chestnuts offered in the stores were not in prime condition, and God knows how long they are laying around after they were picked.  Sometimes, even the outer skins seem a little wrinkled, and when pressed with a thumb, feel slightly hollow.  I'm sure, this is a sign of dehydrated chestnuts.

I wish I could taste a good chestnut, and not have to deal with that annoying, astringent, inner skin.  So...fresh is best.  Although, eating hot, roasted chestnuts while walking through Central Park in October, is hard to beat.


Frank

Yes, Pino is correct.  Variety/species also is a big factor.

Chinese species are easiest to peel but, IMO, not the best tasting.
Italian marroni are next easiest and are tops in flavor according to most customers.  Yes, these are what I grow but I previously grew other varieties and top-worked my orchard after success in trialing these.
Japanese species (grown in Korea) are more difficult to peel and have a drier texture.

Chestnuts are 50-52% moisture when fresh from the tree and are probably best roasted when "cured" (dehydrated, I usually do at room temperature, not in the sun as Pino does) to about 35% moisture.

Harvey, Pino...

In general, can you venture a guess as to what kind of Chestnuts are shipped into the NYC area?   When I see stores stocking chestnuts, it's always around Thanksgiving and Christmas, along with loose, Almonds, Walnuts, Pecans, Filberts and Brazil Nuts.

The Chestnuts usually have one convex side and a flat side.  I have no idea just what kind of Chestnuts that I'm buying....the signs just says:.... "Chestnuts".


Frank

Frank, I would guess Italian chestnuts unless they are quite large. Italian growers refervto lesser-quality varieties as castagna (chestnuts) and top quality as marroni (no English translation). When I attended a chestnut conference in Marradi, Italy in 2001 (only American there), some Italians jomed that the castagna were good enough for the Americans. They must be fumigated when imlortes into the USA because of weevils.

The inner skin is easiest to get off right after they come out of the oven.  I hold the chestnut with a towel quadrupled and squish it, get the outer and inner skins off as fast as possible and get the next one out of the oven.  Once they're cool enough to hold it's much harder.  If the chestnuts are old it may never come off.

I grow a few trees of the early French marron variety Bouche de Betizac.  This year has proven to be the earliest harvest date in the 15 years I've been growing chestnuts by a long shot.  If interested, send me a PM as I don't have enough of these to list them on my main ordering page.

Once again, thanks for the added information.

I most probably have never eaten a Chestnut when it was in prime condition.  The store-bought Chestnuts that are sold in NYC are probably the inferior, "castagna" sort, and probably stale also.  We always roasted them in the oven and then let them cool before we ate them....and it's always difficult to peel off the brown shell and inner skin.  Half the roasted Chestnuts would wind up in the garbage because they can't be peeled, and sometimes the nuts aren't even sweet...but, just starchy.

Why have I never seen large, good quality Chestnuts being sold in NYC?  Are they difficult to ship?  I can only imagine what a good, Chestnut must taste like.  Oh well....



Frank

Finally got a chance to go get some leaves from the neighbors tree if anyone wants to take a guess at species. No Chestnuts have fallen yet and it's too tall for me to reach without a ladder and a long pole. I'd guess the tree is 50+ years old by trunk size.

 
 
 

Not the best leaves, but the only branch I could reach. No fuzz on the leaves. That's an 8.5x11" piece of paper for scale.

Most chestnuts sold in markets have not been refrigerated properly along one or more of the numerous steps along the way from grower to consumer.  The more hands they go through, the greater the chance for someone messing up.  Margins in most stores is pretty small so they focus on products that are easy to store and sell, preferably in high volume.  I used to be a crusader and inform produce departments about their mistakes but gave up because they rarely ever changed.  Many of my customers have expressed dissatisfaction with chestnuts they bought in markets previously but I doubt many of them bothered to take them back and request a refund.  One produce manager told me that nobody complained.  I opened up one of the chestnuts from his display and, to his surprise (but not mine), it was moldy inside.  Pretty convincing that things are wrong, right?  When I checked the next week, nothing had changed.  This market at the time was rated tops for produce in the USA by Consumer Reports.  They did a great job with most things but not chestnuts.