Foraging for Sweet Chestnuts
Now is the time to be collecting your sweet chestnuts.As the October winds get going, there will plenty more of them to collect from under the trees. Don’t confuse them with horse chestnuts (conkers), which are inedible. You can see pictures of the sweet chestnut tree in the Woodlands.co.uk Tree Identification Guide.The hedgehog-like cases are covered in long, pliable, green spikes. Split open, they contain 2-3 shiny, roughly triangular nuts with a distinctive tuft on the end.
Although the European sweet chestnut originated in Greece, and is therefore not strictly speaking native to this country, references to the nuts as a foodstuff are found from ancient times.The Romans planted trees across the empire, explaining why “castan” (the Latin word) appears in various versions throughout Europe, for instance “castanwydden” in Welsh, “kistin” in Breton, “châtaigne” in French and “chestnut” in English.
Chestnuts are not like other nuts. They have a mealy, floury texture and are mostly carbohydrate, unlike most nuts, which are protein-rich. Where land was not suitable for cultivating grain crops because it was mountainous and/or forested, the nuts were a valuable food source and were ground into flour. Chestnut flour is still used in rural French and Italian cooking to this day. It is also worth noting that chestnut flour has no gluten and is therefore suitable for a gluten-free diet.
Assuming you’re too hungry to go to the trouble of milling your nuts into flour, what do you do with them? The sweet chestnut tree is very high in tannins and some people say the nuts are too bitter to eat raw. I’ve nibbled on a few straight from the shell and haven’t found this so, although perhaps a bit indigestible if you ate more than a couple in one go I think. Cooked, they taste slightly nutty and fairly bland, but they work well as bulk and go with lots of other flavours. Preparing chestnuts is not difficult, but a bit laborious, so get comfortable and enlist some help and company. Put the nuts in a big bowl and pour boiling water over them. Leave them for a couple of minutes to let the skins soften. Then scoop some out into a second bowl of cold water to cool them enough for you to be able to handle them. Peel these, and carry on in this manner until you’ve worked your way through the bowlful. Once peeled they can be made into warming soup, cooked with sprouts and bacon, added to stews or stuffings, or soaked in syrup for traditional marrons glacés.
Alternatively, and best of all, you could slit the skins with a knife (they explode otherwise) and roast them. A good reason to get the barbie out for a last airing.
Chestnut Soup
- a couple of handfuls of peeled chestnuts
- 2 pints of chicken or ham stock
- butter or oil
- 1 chopped onion
- some grilled bacon, crumbled
- chopped parsley or chives
- salt and pepper
Soften the chopped onion in a knob of butter or a tablespoon of oil. Add the chestnuts and stock and bring up to the boil. Simmer until the chestnuts have collapsed. Season to taste, and add some crumbled bacon and chopped herbs.
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Discussion
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.
where can i go to pick my own chesnuts. i live in the north east of england middlesborough. thanks
Thanks Matt.
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.
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?
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
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.
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?
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!
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 :-(
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….
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.
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 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
[…] 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 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!
Does anyone know a good spot to pick sweet chestnuts near Abbots Langley, 3 miles north of Watford, Herts?
Paul.
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!!
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
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.
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
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 :D
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.
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!
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.
fiona gould
22 October, 2011