How Do You Make Chestnut Flour?

We have three large chestnut trees near our house and they are again loaded with nuts this year. Today's and last night's hard rains have brought many chestnuts down and we have already harvested a bowl full. We sometimes eat them raw but would really like to know how to turn them into chestnut flour. We have found many sources on the web that sells chestnut flour and many recipies that calls for chestnut flour, but no suggestions of the best way to make chestnut flour! We have ordered a grain mill that we think should work, but we are not sure exactly what to do. My wife, Lisa, thinks we would roast them first?

Also does anyone know how to preserve them until Christmas? We have never been able to have chestnuts roasted on an open fire at Christmas time because they are moldy and bug eaten by then.

I realize that this is kind of early to already be asking questions because not many of you are looking at this blog yet. We would welcome any suggestions, even if you don't find this until November or December or whenever. Perhaps you will help us be better ready for next year even if it might be too late this year!

The Lord always seems to give us an abundance of chestnuts and we always feel that we are letting a great blessing go to waste by not utlilizing them better. So if you have any good ideas besides making chestnut flour let us know them also! Thanks in advance.

1 comment
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Morning Sunshine on September 23, 2006 at 4:54 pm
This has the old fashioned way… I think there must be an easier way now….

http://italianfood.about.com/library/rec/blr0282.htm

Welcome to the homesteading family! I have enjoyed your blogs. I will be returning often, I think. You seem to have a lot of good things to share. May I add you to my friend list?


Purewater:
I have copied an interesting paragraph from the above referenced web site about drying the chestnuts and pasted it here.  Thank you Morning Sunshine!  Add me to your friend list because I have already added you to ours.

"Of course, in the past the farmers who survived on chestnuts didn't sit around the fire roasting them, though some of their crop certainly did meet that end. The rest went into a drying hut, whose design (and name) varied from region to region; it was generally a small two story building, and come harvest time they would light a fire in the ground floor room. Directly above the fire was a stone heat shield to protect the beams supporting the second floor, which was spread with the chestnut crop; the heat rose and dried out the chestnuts, while the smoke that filtered up killed the worms that do get into chestnuts and might otherwise have eaten their way through the harvest. The fire was never allowed to go out, and on chill nights the farmers and their families would gather in the fire room to enjoy the warmth and pass the time, swapping stories and telling tales.

Dried chestnuts can either be boiled, ground up into flour, or used as ingredients in other dishes."