Ready for Jack Frost to start nipping at my nose
- Thread starter Native Hunter
- Start date
blueKYstream
5 year old buck +
How you typically prepare your chestnuts to eat after you collect them? Anything special?
Native Hunter
5 year old buck +
Chestnuts roasting on an open fire...Jack Frost nipping at your nose...
Seriously, I just like them raw after they have dried for a few days. They will shrink in the hull as the moisture leaves, and develop a sweet taste that I love. I take a pocket knife and split them in half and easily work out the two pieces to eat.
The problem is that there may be some weevils. In the past I have just discarded the chestnuts with weevils and eat the clean one. This year I'm doing something different. They say that if you harvest the nuts quickly after they fall (which I did) and then heat them in an oven at 140 degrees for 30 minutes, you will have no weevils. What this does is kill any eggs that could be in the nuts before they hatch. I just pulled my nuts from the oven a few minutes ago. We will see if this works.
What I've just described is for the lesser chestnut weevil, which is the main one we have in KY. There is another less common kind that drills into the nut from the outside after the weevil hatches. I don't have those and not sure what to do about them. The lesser weevil hatches inside the egg and drills out. If you kill the larvae early, you don't even know it was there and the taste of the chestnut is not affected.
People who sell chestnut use either the method I described above or something similar. I've read that you can also freeze them, but that may affect the taste.
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Native Hunter
5 year old buck +
They will do much better with at least 6 hours of unfiltered sunlight, but you might get by with some partial shade.
H20fwler
5 year old buck +
AWESOME!
It was an off year here for my small tree's, I might only get a couple handfulls. We really like eating them at our house too, I just score them and put a cookie sheet of them in hot oven for 10-15 minutes then peel and eat. They have a very unique flavor all their own...kind of reminds me of cooked cashews more than anything.
Cooked some at work a couple years ago and a few coworkers thought I was trying to feed them buckeyes! Everyone liked them.
It was an off year here for my small tree's, I might only get a couple handfulls. We really like eating them at our house too, I just score them and put a cookie sheet of them in hot oven for 10-15 minutes then peel and eat. They have a very unique flavor all their own...kind of reminds me of cooked cashews more than anything.
Cooked some at work a couple years ago and a few coworkers thought I was trying to feed them buckeyes! Everyone liked them.
Native Hunter
5 year old buck +
AWESOME!
It was an off year here for my small tree's, I might only get a couple handfulls. We really like eating them at our house too, I just score them and put a cookie sheet of them in hot oven for 10-15 minutes then peel and eat. They have a very unique flavor all their own...kind of reminds me of cooked cashews more than anything.
Cooked some at work a couple years ago and a few coworkers thought I was trying to feed them buckeyes! Everyone liked them.
That's great. Do you recall the temperature that you set the oven on when you roast them?
H20fwler
5 year old buck +
I think 350
They are an interesting and tasty side to any meal, besides being nice to snack on while watching football.
Native Hunter
5 year old buck +
The oven heating worked. I did 170 for 30 minutes instead of 140. Not a single weevil and the taste of the nuts was not affected.
PS: I've been trying the roasting but much prefer the nuts raw. The are starting to get the sweet taste now, and I eat a bunch of then today.
PS: I've been trying the roasting but much prefer the nuts raw. The are starting to get the sweet taste now, and I eat a bunch of then today.
Native Hunter
5 year old buck +
The deer have started hammering down on them since the last time I was there.
I have too.
I have too.
Native Hunter
5 year old buck +
I picked up more today. In the last few days I have eaten close to 2 gallon by myself. My FIBER runneth high.........!!!!
Native Hunter
5 year old buck +
This is the pulverized ground below my chestnut trees. The deer have literally had a feast. I have one tree that is still dropping just a few nuts, but they are mostly done now.
