Fresh Chestnuts, and Feeling Like a Pioneer
Posted by Kirill Storch on 12/9/2010
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Chestnuts
Fresh Chestnuts, and Feeling Like a Pioneer
When I first wrote down this story, I had already baked my grandmother’s chestnut cake for Thanksgiving. And what was amazing about that cake...beside it being in my family for three generations, was that we made it with fresh chestnuts from my uncle’s farm.
It wasn’t my idea, mind you. But as my friends and I were staying with my relatives...they seemed bent on having an adventure.
It all started when they noticed an ancient, rusted corn sheller in the barn. It hadn’t been used for 50 years, but they insisted on dragging it out and shelling some corn. So we did it.
Then, on an afternoon hike, they screamed like they found buried treasure. “Chestnuts!!” Larry yelled, as we walked over the fresh chestnuts laying in the grass.
“Hey, we could sell these,” I joked.
I hadn’t really thought of it until that year but my grandfather planted a row of sweet chestnut trees at the edge of our farm...just so the family could make that traditional chestnut cake.
Only problem for us was that it was hard to get the chestnuts out of their shells. How did my family used to get them out? Did they use hammers, drive carriages over it? There was a rusted ax stuck in a stump outside of the front yard. Would that do it?
It was actually my sister, Mary, that found a solution. “They had a special knife!” she said, “I remember!”
It was still in my grandpa’s attic, an aged chestnut knife, shaped perfectly for the job.
Chestnuts linger in the back of your throat like a sweet wine. So we completely fell into the trap- the next day, we made a picnic lunch and spent the whole afternoon picking chestnuts. When we got back to the house, it was already cold and dark. So we used a traditional chestnut roaster, along with my grandpa’s chestnut knife, to eat our treats.
In a completely accidental way, we had rediscovered how these old-timers used to enjoy their chestnuts every year. And it didn’t even feel like we were living in the past...it felt like we invented a whole new family tradition.
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