Growing a Sweet Chestnut Tree

[Tora]

Not tried it that way. So you remove the brown shell whilst cold (is it easier then?) Then freeze them - genius! When you say you peel the inner skin, are you talking about the bitter pith?

I remove the brown shell cold but it's easier if chestnuts are soaked in hot water for a bit. I'm just too lazy to boil water for it!  ::) Be careful not to cut your finger while doing this (I did a couple of times  :-\). And yes, I meant the bitter pith. It's much easier to remove the pith once chestnuts are frozen and then boiled for a few minutes. It becomes harder to do it when they become cool, so you might need to reheat it if you peel a batch of chestnuts.

Also I forgot to say that chestnuts become much sweeter after being stored at around 0C for at least several days. So if you want to have 'sweet' nuts in your freezer, store them in the fridge for several days before peeling and freezing. In that case, you need to put them (without peeling at all) in hot water (about 90C) for a minute or so to kill any moth eggs under the shell, and then dry them before storing in the fridge.

Sorry I'm not very good at explaining. Hope it made sense.
Frozen chestnuts keep for about a year so I definitely would recommend it if you love chestnuts. :)

[Tora]

[artichoke]

I collected some nice fat ones in the south of France last week. I boiled them, peeled them, made a soup with onions etc and liquidised it. Very tasty and filling. I would never grow them. It takes YEARS for them to produce. There is a chestnut avenue near us where I sometimes collect a few bags. Because chestnut wood is so useful, most country areas have coppices where you can find nuts.