Thank you everyone for sharing your plants and fallishness. The winner is.... Cheryl M! I have contacted her and await her response.
She wins a skein in the color of her choice of Yummy 2-ply Sock yarn and a Martina Behm pattern in Miss Winkle!
Also, I forgot to include this picture in my blog post the other day. I saw this shrubby plant on the edge of our driveway and have never noticed it before. What the heck is it??
The balls are made up of very pointy points/things. What is it and how/who could ever eat the fruit?? As in what animals? Or is it a way to keep anything from eating them? I would love for someone to tell me what it is.
Have a wonderful Labor Day!
21 comments
It is indeed a Sweet or Spanish Chestnut, I am surrounded by them as I live in the middle of managed woodland in the south-east of England. It is cut, as Sharon says, for basket, fence-post and hurdle making. I eat the nuts raw and they really are ‘as sweet as a nut’, but also love them baked in the oven for about fifteen minutes. You need to cut a little cross in the top or they can pop and split their skins. If you have far too much time on your hands you can make marron glace. I did it one year, never again. They are so delicious though…
If that bush was over here (UK) I’d have no hesitation in identifying it as a Sweet Chestnut. They’re coppiced to yield timbers for hurdles and fencing.
The nuts, once extracted from the prickly casings – not that difficult, let them ripen and dry – are traditionally roasted, on an open fire if you like.
Or you can serve them cooked with Brussels Sprouts as part of a Christmas Dinner. I think this a waste of chestnuts, but I don’t like Brussels Sprouts!
Hickory nuts have smooth casings. We call these Buckeyes from the Chestnut family.
It is a chestnut tree. The pods will split and the nuts are inside. The American chestnut used to cover all across the eastern US, but are very rare and what few are left are protected (the forests were killed off due to a fungal blight accidentally introduced when Japanese chestnuts were imported in the early 1900’s). There is still work being done on producing blight resistant strains of the American chestnut tree. Looking at the leaves, the tree in the photo is most likely a European species – Sweet Chestnut – which seems more naturally resistant to the blight.
YAY!! This is so exciting. I’ve never won anything before. I replied to your email this evening. It was very hard to choose, but I finally decided on the Russett color way. I love your yarns.
Thanks again!
Cheryl