We began the chestnut harvest last Saturday so today was the 8th day of gathering chestnuts. We cannot see many more nuts up in the three trees so surely it is almost over? We have now harvested 7-gallon size storage bags full of them. Some are fuller than others so I don't know exactly how many we have, but we have bagged each day and written the date on the bag so we can keep up with which ones are the oldest. I think we have gotten the most this evening and have not yet put them into a bag. Looking at them now I think we may have to split them into two bagfuls!
Simon and Matthew gathered several nuts today and Christina and Simon have been helping me wash them and put them in bags. We had gotten behind and had three days worth of nuts waiting to go into the refrigerator. Our procedure has become that of collecting them in bowls out in the yard and then submerging them in a large bowl of water at the dining room table. Carla's book says that the bad ones will float and we have been having five or six to float out of each batch. We put those in the throwaway pile and also cull out any we find that have cracks or holes or look too black instead of the shiny brown. We then put the nice clean chestnuts into the gallon plastic bags with a twist tie and then we poke holes all over the bag to let air in, and I think to let moisture out? We don't know exactly what we are doing, but at least we are trying something more this year than we have before.
This has been the first year we have been diligent about gathering them every day. In the past we have let many lay too long and then we try to harvest them and find that most have gotten little worms in them while they waited around to be taken care of. We have discovered that the only way to avoid this is to harvest them as soon as they hit the ground, or as soon after as possible. We are doing it this way now because last year we gathered most of the chestnuts that fell, but became a little chicken when we saw all those worms.
Our Chickens Might Be Nuts - But They Don't Eat Them!
Speaking of chickens, last year I had two of those 20 lb birdseed buckets full of chestnuts but did not bring them in the house and do anything with them for many, many days. I don't really remember how long it was but I found that the buckets were full of those tiny worms and they were attracting many gnats as well. I then had a great idea!
Chickens like eating worms and corn, and chestnuts are called "tree corn", so it seemed to me that our chickens would enjoy scratching at the nuts, eating the worms as well as picking out the meat that was still good! So I dumped the whole thing in their lot... and I don't think a single chicken touched them. It made the lot look even trashier than normal and I was very sorry I threw them out to the chickens. I guess the chickens didn't mind too much, but they looked like they were uncomfortable walking on all those nuts! It has only been recently this year that I could not see any more traces of a stray chestnut still left.
Our current crop is in much better shape this year and I am excited about the possibilities. (Lisa wishes they were black walnuts instead because she really likes to eat them just plain. We do have several walnut trees back on the property but they have never born many nuts, plus we have to go on a trip to get to them.) We are still wondering about making chestnut flour. Lisa is thinking that we need to let the chestnuts dry out before we make flour, but if that were true, how in the world would you keep worms and bugs from getting into them (other than building a two-story smoke house)? If anyone reads this and has an idea, let us know.
Thanks.
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