Week of October 16, 2022

Our fall harvest includes the collection of edible nuts: walnuts at TAProots vineyard and CHESTNUTS at our Florida garden. This year, we planted another chestnut tree to eventually cross-pollinate with our neighbor’s mature tree growing at our property line. These are hybrid trees from the almost extinct American Chestnut crossed with a Chinese Chestnut. The spiny green nuts have been growing all summer and now are falling on our yard in large numbers. Gloves and a sharp blade are mandatory to slice through the prickly husk to yield the shiny brown nut within. When a pound or do of the biggest nuts have been collected, it is time to roast them, but not necessarily on an open fire. The top of each nut is sliced with a heavy blade to create an “X” on each nut. They are soaked in water then transferred to a roasting pan and a hot oven. After 25 minutes or so, the cut edges of the nut’s shell curl back and become crisp. While still hot, the curled edges are stripped back to expose the chestnut’s yellow nutmeat. The peeled chestnuts can then be pried out, and put in freezer bags for eating at the Holidays, especially for inclusion in wild rice stuffing of the Thanksgiving turkey. Chestnuts add a Florida accent to our Holiday traditions.