Chestnut Cases

Sweet Chestnuts are beginning to drop now and we have been out to stuff our pockets full of the biggest, freshest, shiniest, auburn/brown ones we could find.

Roasted Chestnuts are the perfect antidote to the sad feeling we can experience, as the nights draw in. Conkers are nice to find too but they cannot be eaten. Autumn should be celebrated for its vibrant colour and tempestuous weather changes.

I like to roast my nuts over a fire, normally I set one on the barbecue, I let the flames lick at the Chestnuts and blacken the shells, this makes then much easier to peal and remove the pithy skin beneath.

We are also making use of other things that we have gathered and stored in one way of another. Chocolate & Hazelnut Pear Upside-down cake, bit of a mouthful but a damn tasty one! This was a new recipe that we tried and it has been proclaimed an absolute winner.

However, the best thing about the Autumn, as always at this beautiful time year, has to be grabbing handfuls of dry leaves - throwing them in the faces of your unaware pesky children - and running off...

"LEAF FIGHT!"

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Chestnuts

In the Urbane Forager's calendar October and November means it's time to gather Sweet Chestnuts. Autumn is always our favourite time for walks out in the New Forest but Chestnut trees can be found in many places within the city too and often it is easier to spot them when they fall onto the pavement. 

You can carefully remove the spiny hulls with your shoes or boots and it is always special when the shiny mahogany brown nuts pop out - you are the first person to ever witness this magical moment.

We only collect the largest, fattest of the nuts we find. We always try to find the one tree in an area, which provides the biggest nuts and they we comb the area to find and collect the cream of the crop to take home and roast. You can freeze your hoard if you wish to preserve them for later.

We pierce and roast our chestnuts over a small fire or BBQ but you can do them in an oven (always make a small cut in each shell prior to cooking or they will explode). I find that the flames help to burn the shells and pith, making them more easy to peal, which can be a really tricky job. Roast Chestnuts are the perfect accompaniment to a chilly Autumn night or to nibble while watching fireworks on Guy Fawkes night.

It is easy to make all kinds of things out of Chestnuts, even flour to bake with; clearly you need patience to peel off all the shells and pithy skin. My Mum used to cook Chestnut Tarts (like jam tarts but filled with Chestnut purée) as an Autumnal treat. This year I made a "Chestnut roasting tin" so that we could also cook them in the hot ashes of our garden fire chimney.

Don't forget to put, the Urbane Forager book on your Christmas present list. 

Order your copy now!

You can buy this lovely book for your friends and family from all good book-stores or even Amazon.

the Urbane Forager: Fruit and Nuts for Free

Author: Alan Gibson

ISBN: 978-1-78507-300-7

Spiny Sweet Chestnuts

The Nights are drawing in. The clocks have gone back. It's getting dark as I cycle to and from work. However, even though it is raining more, it is still warm.

There are plenty of apples left in the trees about the city. Personally, I think that it is a bit of a shame to see all this lovely fruit going to waste, but I guess the wildlife will benefit. I'm still going to pick a few more big buckets full to press and add to my juice store.

Sweet Chestnuts seem to be falling early this year and many trees have already shed their spiny bounty. I don't know if this is due to the warm October weather that we have enjoyed or something to do with the hot Summer before it.

We always love this time of year-whatever the weather-the beautiful shades and colours of the leaves as they fall is the wonder before the winter. It always pays to make the most of the end of the harvest season and, in my opinion, there's no better way to do this than roasting chestnuts over a fire.

If you do not have the facility to build an open fire (my favourite), you can always use an oven to roast your chestnuts. I often use an old barbecue and simply build a small fire using dry twigs, it doesn't need to last a long time.

I did hear that even the microwave can be used, and I tried this method at home as an experiment. It works, of course. However, it does not have the same romance as a fire with real flames, flickering through the gloomy dusk.

I much prefer a real fire because it gives a traditional feel for the time of year, supplies comfort as the nights draw in, and also because the flames partially burn the shells, making them easier to remove.

Whatever method you use to cook your nuts... Please... Remember, Remember to slit or cut the shells before putting them to the flames... Otherwise they will explode, just like the exciting fireworks that will soon accompany the bonfires all over this country on Guy Fawkes Night.

Roast Chestnuts

Chestnuts are suddenly falling from the tree just up the road from my workplace. The ground around Telegraph Hill is positively carpeted with them.

I have been gathering them during my lunchtime walks and plan to roast them on a fire, just as soon as it stops raining for long enough to strike a match.

It seems odd that it is still so warm; we are normally wearing gloves and warm clothing when we go chestnutting but I'm still in shorts and t-shirts at the moment.

We are all looking forward to the Mansbridge Community Orchard Apple Day, this Sunday 27^th Oct 1:30 – 4:00 and will be there whatever the weather!

Telegraph Hill

Telegraph woods has a wonderful avenue of coppiced chestnut trees there are also pine trees and broadleaved oaks.



Towering Chestnut Trees

The woods also play host to an old Armada beacon and an even more ancient Iron Age hill fort. A diverse and truly fascinating landscape all tucked away in one small spot.

Coppiced Avenue

It is a handsome and intriguing place for a short autumnal walk and also a great place to collect Sweet Chestnuts. In places an eerie quiet descends, all sound muffled by the pine needles.

Eerie Exposed Root Systems in the Fort

Always be prepared; bring boots stout gloves and bags or a coat with big pockets.

Steep Banks of the Enclosure Now Pine Covered

Your main competitors will be the vast number of squirrels that inhabit the wood as well as the noisy jays.

A Fairytale Vista

Fill the coat pockets with your brown beauties and collect a few dry sticks while you are there.

A Squirrel's Breakfast Table

Then you can use the twigs to build a little fire to warm your extremities and roast your nuts on when you get home.

Sweet Chestnuts

You know that Autumn is in full swing when the Sweet Chestnuts start to pop onto the floor. Normally the first nuts to fall are the runts of the crop, too small and skinny to be of any use.

Meanwhile the finest, mahogany mammoths are safely swelling, encapsulated in their hedgehog-like homes.

There is a vast amount of substantial chestnut trees in some areas of Southampton.

In some places flour is made out of chestnuts but I find them dead fiddly; so I just build a fire in my BBQ and let the flames burn the shells off.

DON’T FORGET TO PIERCE THE SHELLS BEFORE COOKING OR THEY WILL EXPLODE!

Chestnuts Roasting on a Pot Bellied BBQ

Apparently the second Ice Age is coming. Weather lore has it that when acorns cover the ground in October, snow will cover the land by Christmas. At the Urbane Forager, we say  that you know it is autumn (even if you are still wearing shorts), when you can smell roasting chestnuts.

First, get your fire/BBQ burning well - you know the score, dry tinder then small sticks first, piled over scrunched paper in a wig-wam shape. Followed by, well in this case more small dry sticks - you dont want it burning all night do you?

Once you have a good fire blazing away, add your chestnuts - let the flames lick at the shells, this helps to remove the pith later.

The nuts soon start to sweat and sizzle - I hope you cut them first or they will beging to explode about now... Turn them over until they look black all over or start to spit, whistle and bubble. This will not take very long.

Remove the blackened husks from Dante's inferno. Metal BBQ type tongs might be better than your delicate fingers at this point. It looks bad I know but it will be OK (probably)...

Phew!

Peel off the burnt shells (let them cool a tad first), remove any pith you can get at and there you have it/them. The Head Chef insists on adding salt at this point but personally I think they taste fine as nature intened, only cooked.

Some people do eat sweet chestnuts raw but I don't.