Chestnuts

A bowl full of Chestnuts from the spiny burs.
The chestnuts came from our grove down by the river.
The chestnut is the only nut that has vitamin C.


 

We stumbled upon an undiscovered grove of American Chestnut trees down by the river.
This is epic!, because the American Chestnut tree is extremely rare due to a blight that killed this mighty giant of a tree. The loss of the American Chestnut was an environmental disaster since this tree occupied 25% of Eastern Forests.

Chestnuts that are planted today are either Chinese or European.

We are going to cut a twig with leaves and send it off for testing and confirmation to determine if our discovery is the American Chestnut.

Oil painting of Chestnut tree by:
Vincent van Gogh
 

 

The Chestnuts that are found in stores are imported. Hopefully in another 100 years, our Eastern forest floors will again be covered with chestnuts for all to enjoy.




P.S. The American Chestnut Foundation confirmed that our chestnut tree is a Chinese variety.
Of course, isn't mostly everything these days "Chinese". 
We figure the "hippies" that once upon a time ~ 50 years ago homesteaded our land and probably planted the Chinese chestnut trees near their hand dug water well.
The well and the trees remain, but the "hippies" were run off by the locals.
That is another story.