Nuts!

[czechsonofagun]

Egon: you could make a decent smoking pipe from them - the European version of corn cob pipe

Also I am not sure how poisonous they are, since every year we were collecting them to feed zoo animals, at least it was the reason they told us - maybe they used them to build secret communistic weapons, them KGBs

There is a superstition to carry three chestnuts in your pocket to prevent joints pain, never tried it myself.

But horse chestnut is a traditional tree for beer gardens, because birds don't like them too much - means there is a lot less droppings on tables and quests.

 

[Egon]

One should have a Stein with the cover to protect the Czech Heritage Brews Holding to the laws of 156? !!

 

[Chuck52]

I guess everyone know the old Christmas song about "chestnuts roasting on an open fire" (I think that's the right line) but I wouldn't know a chestnut if I saw one. Do they grow in the south? And are they a popular food nut?

Bird,

The MU extension people support the idea of growing chestnuts commercially as well as in the home garden. They have worked on improved strains, which as MossRoad said (I think) are mainly imported strains. They grow fairly easily and can be very productive. Many folks really like the flavor, but they are one nut I can do without. They pretty much have to be cooked some way before eating, otherwise they are kinda like raw peanuts....some people like them, but most don't. However, some people seem to love them roasted, though to me they are bland and have a rubbery texture. They can be ground up and used as a soup base, and that tastes OK to me. I'm growing pecans, English walnuts, hazelnuts, heartnuts, almonds, and I'd grow cashews if I could, but no chestnuts. I wonder if I'd like the native American chestnuts.

Chuck

 

[forgeblast]

I heard and have read the american chestnut was a very sweet chestnut. the asian strains that you find in the store sometimes are a poor comparison to the taste of the american chestnut.
I have found that oikos tree farm has a couple species of american chestnut crosses and some of the douglass crosses.
Next year when i plant for our CRP (CREP) program i am planting black walnut, butternut, hickory, and hazlenuts. I have some of the hardy almonds growing now. I do want to try some of the oikos chestnuts, but i will plant them in an area that i am doing selective firewood cuts. I just need to cut more out before i can plant them. lots of beech due to the deer.

How do you like the heart nuts, are they like a walnut?
thanks.

 

[GBeck]

Do you eat them?

I personally never have, but was told you could cook the 'meat' in them, and after reading this thread not really sure what kind I have. I know the tree has to be roughly 50 years old, and I am in Ontario, so based on the other trees around this property I think it is native...

 

[Chuck52]

I heard and have read the american chestnut was a very sweet chestnut. the asian strains that you find in the store sometimes are a poor comparison to the taste of the american chestnut.
I have found that oikos tree farm has a couple species of american chestnut crosses and some of the douglass crosses.
Next year when i plant for our CRP (CREP) program i am planting black walnut, butternut, hickory, and hazlenuts. I have some of the hardy almonds growing now. I do want to try some of the oikos chestnuts, but i will plant them in an area that i am doing selective firewood cuts. I just need to cut more out before i can plant them. lots of beech due to the deer.

How do you like the heart nuts, are they like a walnut?
thanks.

I just planted two heartnut trees this year, and then I killed one of them with fertilizer. The one I didn't kill grew like a weed, so I'm getting a couple more to have good pollination. They are supposed to taste something like English walnuts...we'll see. Your butternut can cross pollinate them I have heard. Have you looked at the English (Carpathian) walnuts? They grow pretty fast and produce early.

Chuck

 

[Bird]

Bird,

The MU extension people support the idea of growing chestnuts commercially as well as in the home garden. They have worked on improved strains, which as MossRoad said (I think) are mainly imported strains. They grow fairly easily and can be very productive. Many folks really like the flavor, but they are one nut I can do without. They pretty much have to be cooked some way before eating, otherwise they are kinda like raw peanuts....some people like them, but most don't. However, some people seem to love them roasted, though to me they are bland and have a rubbery texture. They can be ground up and used as a soup base, and that tastes OK to me. I'm growing pecans, English walnuts, hazelnuts, heartnuts, almonds, and I'd grow cashews if I could, but no chestnuts. I wonder if I'd like the native American chestnuts.

Chuck

Chuck, you know some folks like raw peanuts. In fact, my parents did. Now I'm a peanut addict, but I want mine roasted; never did care for raw ones. I also like most other nuts, but about the only time I eat them is in the Planter's Mixed Nuts, or more recently the Great Value Mixed Nuts.

 

[dmccarty]

Boiled Peanuts!

Yum Yum

My dad and I were driving to FLA one time and we got to hankering for boiled peanuts. Can't remember the name of the store but it kinda sorta looked like a Plantation house. It was on I75 close to the GA/FLA line. We filled up the Jeep and started driving the back roads until we found some fresh boiled peanuts. Messy but good.

We seem to be talking alot about food lately. Is it because winter is getting close and we are trying to fatten up for the season?

Later,
Dan

 

[Chuck52]

Bird,

I can eat raw peanuts, but like you I much prefer them roasted. I don't care for the boiled ones either. I don't know if anyone likes raw chestnuts....I sure don't. Have you ever tasted a raw cashew? I bet they taste "different" too. I once walked past a place where they were roasting raw cashews and the smell was so good I bought enough to darn near kill me. Didn't try a raw one though. Pecans, walnuts and hazelnuts I prefer raw. Almonds are good either way, but smoked almonds are another one of those things I can founder myself on.

Chuck

 

[mjarrels]

Use to get wok roasted chestnuts from street vendors in Singapore. Bag of chestnuts go good with a few tiger beers!

mark

 

[forgeblast]

I cant use them in the ag program that i am enrolling in. It must be native trees. The black walnut wins then.

 

[MossRoad]

It sounds like a miniature Lathe would be in order Prokoff. One could turn many an item.

Heck, even Moss should have one so he could really make fancy fishing gear.

Sitting in front of a winter evening fire turning should be very pleasurable. Maybe some "Good Music" in the background?

Its a toss up between Led Zeppelin's Houses of the Holy or the Stones' Keith Richards singing Before They Make Me Run. Which one would make you run a lathe more better?

 

[Dozernut]

I have read that the native Americans ate the Buckeyes but they leached them several times to remove the Tannic Acid, just as you would with acorns.

A small town south of us has an annual Chestnut festival and they sell roasted Chestnuts along with other items and is a big event for them. They have the Chinese Chestnut variety and they are not bad. They are trying to hybridize the Chinese strain with the American Chestnut to produce a blight resistant strain. There are a few surviving American Chestnuts (I Know of one) that they use for cross-breeding.

We have Butternuts, English Walnut, Black Walnut, Pecan, Shagbark Hickory and are trying to get some Chestnut started along with Hiccan (Hickory-Pecan cross), Heartnut and other varieties, our biggest problem is the deer. They nip the buds off, eat the bark on young trees and the Bucks select our most valuable trees to rub the velvet off their antlers. We have too many trees to fence and the commercial repellents wash off with the rain, tried hair clippings from the barber and the deer just chase the dog away, guess I need a bigger back-up dog. I hunt but that does not put a dent in their population. We have found that putting 1/2 a bar of deodorant soap in an old sock and hanging it on the tree helps a lot. Too many trees and too much acreage.

It is also hard to get any Plums, or Mulberries from our trees. The Does bring the fawns up to clean up any Plums that fall, along with the Turkeys, Raccoons, Opossums and Coyotes (Yes they like Plums too). The birds pretty much get most of the Mulberries but not all. Mulberries make a delicious jelly that is heavenly with butter on a hot roll.

 

[Egon]

Unless it's classical music Moss you are too young to really enjoy the music I would.

 

[Chuck52]

I have read that the native Americans ate the Buckeyes but they leached them several times to remove the Tannic Acid, just as you would with acorns.

A small town south of us has an annual Chestnut festival and they sell roasted Chestnuts along with other items and is a big event for them. They have the Chinese Chestnut variety and they are not bad. They are trying to hybridize the Chinese strain with the American Chestnut to produce a blight resistant strain. There are a few surviving American Chestnuts (I Know of one) that they use for cross-breeding.

We have Butternuts, English Walnut, Black Walnut, Pecan, Shagbark Hickory and are trying to get some Chestnut started along with Hiccan (Hickory-Pecan cross), Heartnut and other varieties, our biggest problem is the deer. They nip the buds off, eat the bark on young trees and the Bucks select our most valuable trees to rub the velvet off their antlers. We have too many trees to fence and the commercial repellents wash off with the rain, tried hair clippings from the barber and the deer just chase the dog away, guess I need a bigger back-up dog. I hunt but that does not put a dent in their population. We have found that putting 1/2 a bar of deodorant soap in an old sock and hanging it on the tree helps a lot. Too many trees and too much acreage.

It is also hard to get any Plums, or Mulberries from our trees. The Does bring the fawns up to clean up any Plums that fall, along with the Turkeys, Raccoons, Opossums and Coyotes (Yes they like Plums too). The birds pretty much get most of the Mulberries but not all. Mulberries make a delicious jelly that is heavenly with butter on a hot roll.

Dozer, I can sure sympathize with you on the deer issue. I have to individually fence every tree I plant if I want it to make it to a size where it can withstand deer browsing. My trees are too widely spaced to make fencing in the area worthwhile, especially when you consider how tall a fence is required to keep deer out, so I put a 5' circle of fence around each tree. Talk about a pain when mowing, not to mention the expense. I planted five grafted pecans in 2004 and three carpathian walnuts in 2005 and was just this year able to remove the fence from three of the pecans and two of the walnuts. I still had to worry about buck rubs, but was lucky this year. A few years back, I planted about 50 each of black walnut and pecan seedlings....there may be a couple of the pecans still hidden in deep weeds in the old fence rows, but all the walnuts and the vast majority of the pecans are long gone. As to the coons and other beasties, they get most of my peaches and some of the plums. The fence circles obviously don't even slow them down.

Chuck

 

[MossRoad]

Unless it's classical music Moss you are too young to really enjoy the music I would.

Hee heee!!! I'll listen to it and even enjoy it, but I'm more of a classic rock kind of person. Fortunately for us, our 15 and 10 year old daughters prefer "our" music to the current modern stuff.

 

[forgeblast]

The small orchard we planted has 7' of fencing around it to keep the deer off. The replanting we will be doing in the fields will have 5' tubex tubes around the trees.
1. to help with deer 2. to help with the voles. those voles will destroy a trees roots and the tubes really protect them. i am not sure if i will fence in everything, the cost is a bit high. Even to just use the mesh deer fencing, i figure if i am going to fence it in i want the fencing to last.