Foraging for Sweet Chestnuts ~ by catherine

I am a big fan of sweet chestnuts and make my own chestnut and parsnip soup (with details and pictures at http://www.jeremytaylor.eu/chestnut_soup.htm ). Interestingly, I saw a book my Gordon Ramsey which has an almost identical recipe to mine. Clearly great minds think alike…

We would love to harvest more chestnuts from our wood this year, but the summer wasn’t warm enough. I read in a chestnut book that the summer needs to be over 27degrees for a good length of time for the nuts to grow. This year the nuts are so tiny.
I suspect that we will have some hungry woodland animals too!

Anyone know where you can buy large quantities of chestnuts?

I’ve seen Tesco selling them at £4.99 per Kg. I’ve decided to go and forage for some myself although I fear I have left it far too late this year.
Excellent blog and recipe ideas.

For Keren.Still have a few kilo’s left, but next year could sell you any amount,much much cheaper. By the way, they’re large and from the Limousin, France.Post a reply if you wish to make contact.

I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW HOW ONE CAN KEEP LARGE QUANTITY OF CHESTNUTS.
I HAVE COLLECTED THESE BUT FOUND THAT THOSE NOT EATEN SOON GO MOLDY/ OR BAD INSIDE
EVEN THROUGH I PLACED THEM NOT ON TOP OF EACH OTHER.
SHOULD I HAVE SPRAYED THEM WITH SOMETHING OR WHAT?
HOW LONG CAN CHESTNUTS BE KEPT FOR?

Hi Maureen

try this: http://www.lost-in-france.com/cuisine/313-chestnuts-autumns-bounty

Hi, anyone know a good wood to find chestnuts near brighton or in the east sussex area?

Hi Jennifer deeper in to Sussex away from the sea going out Lewes way is a good area to look – i have a few tried and tested spots. I hope to get out looking today. Give me a shout if you want more specific help.

We have a good supply of sweet chestnuts for sale if anyone interested.

Hi Andy

I’m always interested in where I can get sweet chestnuts. A night by the fire with the roasting pan is nothing less than perfection. If you could let me know where you are that would be great. With that in mind, could anyone tell me of any good chestnut foraging sites in the west kent area that would be really helpful.

I have just been for a walk in a woodland I know in Sussex that has many large Chestnut trees. I think it will be better to wait few more weeks as they will be sweeter.

Hi Andy,

I would be very interested in some chestnuts. Which part of the country are you based or are you able to post them? Thanks very much.

Hi Dooj, I live in Lewes and my daughter has just phoned me up to see if I know of a good place in or near Lewes to pick some. She wants to take her children out for a chestnut hunt. Gordon.

I went out collectng these yesterday in Knowle park in Sevenoaks. If you go up St Julians Raod off River Hill and enter via the second gate, walk along and then turn left at the first main path you come to there are lines of the trees and the ground underneath them is covered in chestnuts.

Hello. Live in Loughborough in Leicestershire. Does anyone know of some good places to go foraging for chestnuts. I used to find some near Coalville when I went on my bike as a youth but can’t remember where.

Hi Neil and Dooj,

I live in Worthing and would love to know where you can go to for finding chestnuts, would you be prepared to divulge?

Alexxturner@ntlworld.com

Lorenzo, try at the grounds of Mount Saint Bernard Abbey – i remember seeing them there when i visited a few years ago. I guess it would be a good idea to ask before you collect. Let me know how you get on! nige_sperry@hotmail.com.

i like to go foraging for them in the school holidays, but in Berkshire they can tend to be pretty scarce due to the growing population of GREY SQUIRRELS

I have also been searching the woods in the Chiltern Downs here in Dunstable, looking for these gems. Currently I’ve not seen any. If anyone knows of any let me know. There’s a big sweet chestnut tree in the forecourt of St Thomas’s Hospital, opposite Westminster, but unless your into inner London foraging (!) then maybe not.

I live on Merseyside and have found a number of trees but they only seem to have small, flat, empty nuts, does anyone know if this is an issue with the variety, or the weather or something else?

anyone any suggestions of where to go to sweet chestnuts picking not too far from london??? Many thanks!

My favourite place for chestnuts is at Church in the Wood, St Leonards, East Sussex. Take the path that runs along the left side of graveyard and past the far end of the graveyard into the wood take the right path down for several hundred yards (chestnut trees start here) then turn left back up (should be houses on right)then at junction take the path ahead through holly bushes. I`ve been going here for about 45 years and on a good year and timing it right I have had carrier bags full in just one visit. Hope this helps but remember it`s all about timing it right.

Hi Fiona

I believe that chestnuts need a warm summer – over 26 degrees to be nice and big…. not sure if we had that!

Hi,

I’m desperate for chestnuts! I adore them, but nobody I know could tell me where to go in Cambridgeshire to collect some. Anybody would know of some woods around Cambridge? (I’ll also be looking for trumpets of death, but I’m not sure if they’re found around here)

Cheers,

Steph

I picked up a good couple of handfuls from my local park in Gravesend, but I did liberate some from their spiky, unopened shells – having just read Catherine’s link, I see I wasn’t meant to. Had I been prepared with gloves (boy, those things are prickly!) I might have brought them home and waited for them to open of their own accord. I now know for next time!

Hello There

I’ve also been searching for a good place to go foraging for Chestnuts as I got a great crop last year in Knowle but I wondered if there was anywhere closer to London.

Made some wonderful Marons Glace from a recipe off a blog called ‘Not Quite Nigella’ an Australian, or is she New Zealand?, lady who has a great list of recipes…. not only were the Marons Glace fantastic but the syrup that was left, after cooking, was like Maple Syrup …. really lovely on yoghurt, meringues or ice cream …. this lasted well into this year and so I am now really keen to make the whole thing again.

I really recommend ‘Not Quite Nigella’ if you search for this you will find what I am talking about.

Hello, does anyone know where to find sweet chestnuts around the Redditch area? me and my dad are going to pick some but we dont know where to look, plz reply

Also have several questions – does anyone know how to best dry chestnuts for making flour? Also any good tips on how to weed out those that are incubating grubs – my current collection is slowly shrinking

Just come back from a half hour walk with daughter. We found a few sweet chestnut trees and foraged on the wood floor finding small but lovely nuts. Not sure what to do with them I surfed and found this great blog. looking forward to roasting first then may go and get some more. Cheers for this info . Very helpful space.

I really want to take my children chestnut hunting, does anyone know of anywhere in west Sussex, would be most grateful for the information, as we went out for 4 hours and didn’t find any. Many thanks

I’m looking for chestnut trees in South Manchester. Anyone know where we could go? We have a woodburning stove and they roast perfectly on there TIP: get a pizza tray – the round ones with holes in the bottom. Pop on the top of the stove and 20 mins later – heaven!!

Does anyone know a good spot to pick sweet chestnuts near Abbots Langley, 3 miles north of Watford, Herts?
Paul.

I think you might find that Chestnut season is over for this year now. Squirrels will have eaten most of them and the rest gone mouldy!

[...] in October, or thereabouts, you can with a bit of searching find plenty of Sweet Chestnuts to make their own flour.  The process is pretty straight forward [...]

i know its late but could anyone let me know where there are any mature chestnut trees in north devon.. used to collect then at hagley wood and chaddesley corbet in the midlands but moving to north devon dont seem to be able to find any barnstaple to ilfracombe area
thanks

You know i have lost memory how many places people have asked(and answered) where to find Sweet chestnut trees. I really think its about time the website administrators started drawing locations on a map of UK.

With the technology today its also quite feasable to go into the countryside, find a tree and mark its geographic position with a simple mobile phone transmitting the info back to the web server for all to share.

I have a sweet chestnut tree at the bottom of my garden, it has started to drop sweet chestnut cases, and inside disappointingly are small and quite squishy chestnuts. I anticipated them to be same size as conkers!
Hopefully may be nice enough to roast in the Winter.

Hi, does Andy still have a good supply of sweet chestnuts, would like to roast some at a winter fair in December …. or if anyone knows where to find them in Somerset, must be nearly time to go looking…or buying….

Anyone found any decent sized ones in the sussex area yet this year? Or was the summer too cold? Found one tree where the nuts were as small as beech nuts…oh and the beech nuts were so small they were practically invisible

Returning from Australia after 30 years, I am so looking forward to some soon, I hope to go looking any day. My neighbour has a secret place, and walnut trees are found there too. I am Coeliac so will try to make flour if I get enough.! So do hope it has been warm enough!

Off to South Dorset for the weekend with family and looking for chestnut woods, any suggestions or is it still too early in the month?

Tim, I would have said yes, except i know fruit has been ripening early this year including Crabapples, Haws, Blackberries, Elderflower, Elderberries, Damsons and Hazelnuts. I’m gonna take a gander over at Ashridge park (Bedfordshire) this weekend and will report back.

Hi just found this page. Wilderness wood is a good place to collect chestnuts but you have to pay an entrance fee for the up keep of the woods, you can also choose your own christmas tree which is still growing and pick it up at christmas. http://www.wildernesswood.co.uk/index.htm

We collected some chestnuts from a nearby forest in Danbury (only a small bowl full). Which we washed dried and then left in the bowl on the draining board. Several 10mm long translucent with dark centre, no legs, critters emerged. I tipped the bowl out and found many more. Needless to say i put them in the bin. Does any one know what they were and how to detect fot them when collecting please?

In response to Jenny – there’s a wood of sweet chestnuts at the eastern end of the Quantocks up above north Petherton. Plenty down here near Dartmouth too – look quite good despite a cold summer.

Thanks Matt.

where can i go to pick my own chesnuts. i live in the north east of england middlesborough. thanks

Chestnuts can been found in abundance at Tatton Park Knutsford Cheshire.
The best place is the back of the picnic are near the main carpark, although there are many other trees scattered around all round the park.
After your first experience of locating the trees you will soon be able to spot a tree from its shape from a long distance.
The best way to prepare them for eating is to first give them time to go sweet. I lay them on trays in my dining room for at least three days before cooking them in the oven or which ever method you prefer to cook them.

Fountains abbey Ripon there a lines of sweet chestnut trees, but small nuts at the moment
can you freeze them whole? I want to save them for Christmas, help please.