Harvesting Chestnuts

 A couple weekends ago we visited LeFever Chestnuts located in Fenton, Michigan. I've never been to a chestnut farm, but I think after this first experience, going forward, it will become a family tradition each year.

When we arrived, the air was crisp and filled with the sweet smoke of the open fire roasting pits. The chestnuts had fallen to the ground and there was a ring of brown spiky balls encircling each tree.

The husk of the chestnut is covered in sharp, brown spikes that remind me of a hedgehog. Inside each husk is 2-3 chestnuts.

The deep orange brown color is beautiful!

To choose a good chestnut, you want it to be rounded, and the flat side minimal and not concave. The skin should not be wrinkled.

Once we collected our chestnuts, we brought them to the barn to be weighed and paid for. Then we moved to the cutting station to prepared them for roasting. An "X" should be cut in the skin on the rounded side.

When roasting, this "X" will open up and makes shelling the nuts easy.

Beautiful, nutty, sweet, earthy and smoky. The chestnuts were delicious and had bits of caramelized areas where the fire had roasted the open flesh. I can't wait to add these to our holiday dressing!