Many thanks for comments yesterday - apologies for not replying - just got side tracked by other stuff.
These are Sweet Chestnut trees, two of several dozen all around the entrance roads and paths at the National Trust Sutton Hoo site.
I don't think I've been anywhere with so many fallen chestnuts, the grandchildren thought they looked like baby hedgehogs - it seemed really bad to walk over them - walking over something edible was all wrong.
I brought some home to cook.
But then I remembered that the last time I'd tried this they had been really small and had fallen to pieces when I tried to peel them and, come to think of it, I don't really like them anyway!
Back Tomorrow
Sue
The condition of the nuts there is infinitely superior to here where traffic has reduced them to a messy pulp along the road.
ReplyDeleteThere were so many - could have picked up many more
DeleteMe neither although hubby likes them. Like you say, too small and faffy to deal with.
ReplyDeleteI'd probably do something with them if I was starving!
DeleteWe are yet to venture up north this autumn to scrunch through the chestnut woods which are managed and coppiced for their wood. I love most nuts but chestnuts are a faff - the removing from their prickly case, the slitting, the roasting and peeling - and truthfully I’m not that keen on their dry texture. I am very pleased I have no sweet chestnut trees in the garden as I know from friends in the village that it is a job and a half to clear up the prickly husks. It was a beautiful day here yesterday and we went east to the Saxon town of Steyning to visit the museum, the library (another excellent Sussex library), several quality junk shops (don’t need any more quality junk!) the health food shop (bought a box of vegan Booja Booja hazelnut truffle logs for my birthday treat and quinoa flakes for biscuit making) and the bookshop where I chose an almanac for 2024 on the night sky for my present. We ate our homemade chicken mayo sandwiches sitting on the sunny bench outside St Cuthbert’s church where the organist was playing Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance with a flourish. You may know and have read Martin Carver’s book - “Sutton Hoo: Burial Ground of Kings?” which is a well illustrated and readable history of the site. Just looked it up and see World of Books have a copy for 41p! Have a lovely day - it is pouring with rain here and very gloomy so a reading and making day for me I think. Sarah in Sussex
ReplyDeleteChestnuts do have a very odd texture.
DeleteOoh, roast chestnuts! Reminds me of my childhood, a twist of roasted chestnuts on a Winter's walk, yummy, I can smell them now!
ReplyDeletePerhaps they are best roasted by chestnut sellers outside on a cold day
DeleteOur woods are full of sweet chestnut trees. The husks sometimes momentarily hurt the dogs' paws, especially the younger dogs.
ReplyDeleteNot surprised they are painful to dogs - very vicious
DeleteDifficult to refuse free food, even if you don't like it. There used to be an old man in our village who must've had a sweet chestnut tree. Every year at about this time he would appear in the pub with a huge bag of them and roast them on the fire and hand them out free to anyone who wanted them.
ReplyDeletePerhaps roasting on a fire is the way to gp
DeleteThe chestnuts look so shiny and healthy but sadly I don’t like them either! Catriona
ReplyDeleteI added a tin of them to Brussels Sprouts one Christmas, they weren't too bad like that
DeleteI used to think I liked sweet chestnuts too - but wouldn't bother with them now........ tastes change don't they?
ReplyDeleteAlison in Wales x
Cashews are my favourite nuts nowadays
DeleteI love chestnuts, roasted with a little salt a huge treat. Jean in Winnipeg,
ReplyDeleteWish I could send them over!
DeleteYour grandkids are right they do look like baby hedgehogs.
ReplyDeleteCathy
They look OK but lethal to pick up
DeleteI have a recipe for biscotti made with chestnut flour. We just pulped cooked chestnuts and left out the wet ingredient and they made fabulous biscotti. Great flavour.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you found a good use for them
DeleteWe too were amazed at how many there were along the paths near the car park, there looks to be even more from your photo. They do look good ones:)
ReplyDeleteI've never seen so many of any tree fruit anywhere
DeleteThe chestnut trees are beautiful trees. You collected quite a few chestnuts. Roasted chestnuts are an acquired taste and, like you, I have not really enjoyed them.
ReplyDeleteThere seem to be lots of people who don't like them
DeleteI like them. In the 1950s there was an Italian man with a stall in our local market who sold rich yellow ice cream in the summer and roast chestnuts in the winter. Just the thing for a cold day walk up town.
ReplyDeleteI quite like the idea of trying them from a chestnut seller on a cold day
DeleteI collected some yesterday by Asda, and inside they were £2 for a small net.
ReplyDeleteI pierce them well, front and back, so they don’t explode, put a few in just a bit of water and microwave them for a snack, they take just a couple of minutes and are then easy to peel.
Wow, lots of them on the ground. I wonder if you could grind them up (or chop them) after cooking to use in baking. Would that make them more palatable for you?
ReplyDeleteGod bless.
I have such good memories of chestnuts and going to 'collect' them when we were younger. We used to throw sticks up in the trees to try to get them down. When we took them home we'd roast them in front of the gas fire lol
ReplyDelete