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
Hi, I was foraging chestnuts off the ground in Hyde park today, until the police came along, have me a written caution and made me put back the chestnuts on the ground:-(
I’ve been foraging in Petworth; there are so many chestnuts and been try to find recipes to use them and to preserve them.
thanks for the feed back brian I will have a closer look a the ones left in the tree when they decide to fall.
thank you
Where can I find sweet chestnut trees in Somerset easily accessible for foraging. Love them but can never find them!!!! Thank you
hello :)
thank you so much for your kind advice. I will go for a foraging walk in Hyde Park and if i have the chance also in Islington High Street, I didn’t know there were these plants there: great!
hope your marons glace are great!
thank you so much
Elisa
Hello Mark the nuts should be quite hard and totally brown all over otherwise they aren’t really good to eat. They need to ‘ripen’ like any fruit or nut so an under ripe nut will not have the sweetness.
I have to say that this years nuts have been very good in Hyde Park … also noticed a tree with good nuts in Green Park.
Good luck with the foraging
hi
I have a sweet chestnut tree in my garden I have never collected a harvest because when they fall they don t look like they have ripened enough and some feel to soft to be a nut is this normal
any help welcome
Just an update … I’ve just finished making a second batch of Marons Glace from chestnuts that I collected … of all places … Hyde Park.
Most years the trees produce tiny or shriveled sweet chestnuts but this year there is quite a decent crop … get down there before the squirrels do!
Hi Elisa
Islington High Street have plenty of these trees planted there, so I am told. Maybe it’s worth checking out if you still live in London
Kit
Can anyone tell me if this year is a bad year for Sweet Chestnuts. I went for one of my favourite walks yesterday … between Knole Park and Ightham Mote in Sevenoaks and usually there are some very large and well laden trees with Sweet Chestnuts ripening. This year they are either tiny and very few or none at all. In contrast the Sweet Chestnut trees in Hyde Park are pretty full and of quite a good size. So which is it .. a bad year or just strange weather conditions in some areas?
Hello,
Try the site filipe.com
it is all about sweet chestnuts
Or Bedfordshire or Lincoln shire area
Where in Cambs can I find Sweet Hazel TRees please or in an around the area
Hi I have collected lots and lots. Now they are quickly going mouldy. Can I find a way to store them until I need to use them.
Hi, Elisa – we just came back from Shorne Woods in Kent. There are loads of chestnut trees there. We collected some for the first time ever which is why we’re on this site to check what to do next. Hope this helps.
Hello, we are planning to go foraging for chestnuts soon. Can we pick up closed burrs that have fallen and if so how do we look after them so they can ripen? Thank you!
Hi from Nova Scotia, Canada–just found a tree with these chestnuts on it. Locally we have the Horse Chestnut and have never seen this kind.Now I’m thinking I must try some roasting ones and see how they are.
Hello Lois,
where are you coing to pick them up? and when?
thank you so much
Elisa
I am going to enjoy my picking of chestnuts this autumns lots around hum! hum! in the west of england.
[…] More info: http://www.woodlands.co.uk […]
Hello,
I live in lodnon and I’d love to pick some chestnut this October (as you mentione late in the months is the best period to find them).Can you suggest me any place where I can find them?
Thank you so much
Elisa
[…] to cheat just use syrup from Tate & Lyle with added vanilla essence. Also have a look at this interesting article about foraging for sweet […]
Hi,you can also cut them a little and just boil them with all the skin, try one sometimes and you will know when they are ready. Back to my hometown we have a special skillet with holes and we cook them on the open fire untile the skin looks burned, they are delicious…
i would like to know where to go find them in North England, i miss the chestnuts in autumn :(
I would also love to know how to stop the grubs emerging. I have put the lovely bowlful I collected in Faversham, Kent, outside the back door, as I had two come out and crawl across the worktop. I had checked them all and discarded any with holes in.
Hello Edward, gosh I’m really surprised and wonder why the police would do that. Did they say there were bye laws regarding foraging? I suppose there must be but I certainly didn’t imagine there would be. Oh well another place crossed off the list. It seems really harsh that they cautioned you.
Brian
16 October, 2013