Roasting, Planting, and Restoring the American Chestnut

I recently wrote about chestnuts for my weekly gardening column in our local newspaper, the Paulding Progress. Chestnuts are a timely topic, what with Christmas and the song, not to mention chestnut season is generally October through December.

The president of the New York chapter of the American Chestnut Foundation, Allen Nichols, somehow saw my column and contacted me, offering to send both American chestnuts for eating and some for planting in the spring. Yes, genuine American chestnuts, not the Chinese ones most people eat these days.

The natural range of the
American chestnut

The American Chestnut Foundation is dedicated to bringing back the American chestnut tree (Castanea dentata), all but wiped out by blight in the early part of the 20th century. A fungal disease was inadvertently introduced to the U.S. from Asia and it proved to be fatal to the American chestnut, which has no natural defense against it.

Efforts to bring back the American chestnut include the creation of a transgenic American chestnut tree at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY-ESF). By inserting a naturally-occurring gene from wheat (also found in strawberries, barley, oats and bananas), the chestnut tree is resistant to the fungus. (See video at the end of this blog post.) If researchers are successful in gaining permission, it could be the first transgenic tree to be released in the wild.

My eating chestnuts arrived just before Christmas and yesterday, I set about roasting them. I'd never even seen a chestnut in my life, let alone roasted any, so I consulted Google and found several good guides for the process. I melded several of the guides into one and here's how I did it:

1.  Since chestnuts contain a fair amount of moisture, you need to cut a slit in the outer covering to prevent them from exploding as you heat them up in the oven. Make sure your knife is very sharp, because they're very tough, and make a cut about ⅛-inch deep, through the outer layer, the thin papery layer and just nicking the meat a bit.

All you need to do is to provide a vent, but traditional cuts are in the shape of an X:

2.  After cutting, I soaked the chestnuts in warm water for about half an hour. This helps loosen the outer covering which will later be peeled away.

3.  After soaking, I placed them in baking pan in a 350°F oven for 30 minutes. (Some sources recommend 400°F for 15 minutes.)

4.  When they're ready to take out of the oven, the skins will have peeled back on their own and the meats will be a golden color, glistening slightly.

5.  When I took them out, I put the hot chestnuts in a piece of foil and closed it up. This allows them to steam a bit, which helps with removal of the skins. After a few minutes, they were cool enough to handle.

6.  While many comments were found complaining of the difficulty in shelling the roasted chestnuts, I didn't find it to be difficult at all. Several of them popped right out of the shells on their own. Others came out when I cracked the shells further. The thin papery layer stuck to the shells, so even those weren't a problem. Beginner's luck, maybe?

What did they taste like?

I'm a pretty picky eater. Certain textures, temperatures, and aftertastes have a way of making something unpalatable to me, in addition to the flavor itself. But I often discipline myself to try new things and to eat things that I know are good for me even if I don't particularly like them.

I didn't expect to like roasted chestnuts. The only nuts I really like are pecans and almonds, but I'm even selective about the kind of almonds I'll eat. I like peanut butter (creamy only) but don't like peanuts. Walnuts make my mouth hurt. Cashews are just nasty.

But these chestnuts... YUM! I'm not really sure how to describe the taste to someone who's never had them before, but my first reaction was that their flavor hinted of something I'd eaten before. It took me a bit to identify it, and don't laugh, but to me they tasted like chicken. Not exactly, of course, but that's the taste that came to mind and Romie concurred.

Others have said they remind them of sweet potatoes and I can see that, too. Whatever... they were good. Romie liked them as well, but he'll eat just about anything.


Planting chestnut trees in spring

Photo from United States
Forest Service

When grown from seed, American chestnut trees take about 7-8 years before they produce seed. So why would I want to plant chestnut trees, when I'm not even sure if we'll be living here in 2023?

As Allen Nichols told me, "We are encouraging people to plant pure wild type American chestnuts so they have a tree to cross with our blight resistant transgenic tree, when it is available, which we hope will be in just 3-5 years."

I will plant them because I like being a part of something that is for the greater good and because, like my beloved monarchs, they can use all the help we can give them.

Watch this video on YouTube

Life's Too Short Not to Chia

Ch-ch-ch-chia!

Sing it with me now! When you hear that song, which Chia Pet® pops into your head?  Though it seems as if these quirky items have been in existence forever, it's really only been since 1982 that they were widely marketed. That's an entire lifetime for my younger daughter, so I suppose to her, they HAVE been around forever.

Even so, it took me 33 years before I owned one. Yep, I succumbed to the holiday hype. You've got to admit the commercials are catchy. Tacky too, but that kind of part of their appeal...

Watch Chia Pet commercial on YouTube

The terracotta figures have run the gamut of incarnations:  Ram, Bull, Puppy, Kitten, Teddy Bear, Tree, Bunny, Turtle, Herb Garden, Pig, Frog, Hippo, Guy, Elephant, Kid, Professor, Clown, Cow, Lion Cub, Dinosaur, Elmer Fudd, Taz, Tweety, Mr. T, Shaggy, Scooby-Doo, Homer Simpson, Bart Simpson, Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Shrek, Donkey, Garfield, Cat Grass, Sylvester, Marty, Po, Presidents Obama, Washington, and Lincoln, Sponge Bob, Liberty, Hello Kitty, Santa, Snowman, Romney, Gingrich, Paul, Gnome, Coco Crisp, Willie, Uncle Si, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, Mickey Mouse, Flower Garden (Winnie-the-Pooh with paperwhites), Chef's Garden, Zombies and Minnie Mouse.

Whew.

So which one did I get? Hello Kitty, of course.

I have followed the instructions, first soaking the terracotta Hello Kitty planter for an hour. (I actually soaked it overnight.)

Then I soaked two teaspoons of the included chia seeds in ¼ cup of water - again overnight, though the directions say just an hour. This helps soften the seed coat, enabling germination.

The mixture became a gel-like paste, which made it easier to spread and adhere to the terracotta planter. The mucilaginous paste is inherent and is the seed's way of making sure that it will have enough moisture until it germinates. Once the seed germinates, it will need to get its moisture elsewhere - in this case, by watering daily.

There's a little hole at the top of the planter, which you need to pour water into each day, to make sure the terracotta stays hydrated. This is how the chia will get the moisture it needs for growth.

I put it in a location that gets bright light - in our house, a south window because it's winter and the quality of light here in the north isn't the best in other locations of our house.


In about five days, give or take, I'll see sprouts beginning, and in about two weeks, they should be grown enough that I can clip them and add them to my salads.

Now lest you think this is all nonsense, chia sprouts are GOOD FOR YOU. You can eat them. Chia (Salvia hispanica) is used as a nutritional supplement in its seed form, added to smoothies, either ground or whole. They're rich with omega-3 fatty acids and high in the B vitamins, niacin and thiamine. The sprouts make salads healthier and more interesting.

Don't you want to chia too? Of course you do. Because you're secure in your own gardening skin and you don't take yourself or life too seriously. You want to cross that Chia Pet® off your bucket list. So just do it.

Better hurry though, because Chia Pets are only available in stores during the holidays. If you're lucky, you might get a great deal on one right about now. And while you're at it, you should just pick up a few of them and gift them to the people high on your list. Or low on your list. You decide.

Ch-ch-ch-chia! Because life's too short not to chia.

A Pecan Pie Story

Mimi and me in 2011
Photo by Annie Haven

Several years ago, I was having a conversation with Mimi San Pedro, COO of Hortus, Ltd., P. Allen Smith's company. It was a few weeks prior to one of my Garden2Blog visits to Allen's Moss Mountain Farm, and the conversation veered in the direction of pecan pie, as most conversations do. I mean, who doesn't love pecan pie? It's always in the forefront of our thoughts and eventually we're going to talk about it. We can't help it.

Now I am not a pie eater in general, but if you put a Dutch apple or pecan pie in front of me, I'm a happy girl.

Mimi described Allen's pecan pie to me and I was already drooling, and I secretly hoped he would serve it when I was there. Okay, maybe it wasn't so secretly and I might have just said, "Can we please have Allen's pecan pie when I'm there?" 

"M-m-m-m... pie!"
Photo via Hortus, Ltd.

Well, how about that - a few weeks later when we had one of our meals at the farm, THERE WAS THE PIE. Of course, I just KNEW we were having that pie specifically for ME, right? (The truth is, all visitors get it for lunch when they take the farm tour.) 

This is The Pie.

Take my word for it - make this and you will throw out all your other pecan pie recipes. Even if you don't particularly like pecan pie, you might just like this one. So. Good.

Pecan Buttermilk Pie

Click on image to enlarge

 



Allen's Pecan Buttermilk Pie is featured in his wonderful cookbook, Seasonal Recipes From the Garden. This is my go-to cookbook if I want to make something new and be assured that it will taste good. 

Enjoy!



 
*Recipe reprinted here with permission. Link for Allen's book is my Amazon affiliate link.