Wednesday, November 13, 2002

For weeks, sable-colored chestnuts imported from Europe have been spilling from boxes at produce markets. Domestic chestnuts are out there, too; they're just harder to find in these parts. But increasingly, American growers are carving out a share of the chestnut market, hoping to entice the public with a product they believe is superior in taste, if not in size.

"They're smaller than the chestnuts you find in the stores. People are put off by their size at first, but once they taste them, they're hooked; they're so much sweeter," said Liz Hindinger of Hindinger Farm, a fruit and vegetable farm in Hamden, Conn. In operation since 1893, the farm has only three chestnut trees that typically yield about seven bushels of chestnuts sold on site. "It's not a huge crop for us, but it's a nice sideline," she said.

Some 3,000 miles away, in Waterford, Cal., about 100 miles east of San Francisco, Lucienne Grunder has been harvesting from 9,000 chestnut trees on 85 acres since 1998. She's experimenting with 15 cultivars, hoping to select about five that perform best. "I sell them in the Bay Area and by mail to restaurants on the west coast," she said of her chestnuts. "I have about 5,000 pounds total production."

In between -- in Michigan and Missouri, Delaware and Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana -- more and more farmers are giving chestnut growing a go. "I'd say it's a booming industry," said Sandra L. Anagnostakis of the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station in New Haven, which has been operating a chestnut breeding program since 1930.

"Ten years ago, we probably had 20 acres of chestnuts in Michigan; now we have more like 200," said Dennis Fulbright, a plant pathologist with Michigan State University in East Lansing. "There's an epidemic interest in chestnuts." His is an interesting choice of words, for an epidemic of sorts devastated the American chestnut at the turn of the last century.

Chestnut trees were once so prolific on the east coast that it's been said a squirrel could travel from Maine to Florida by jumping from one chestnut to another without ever touching the ground. A blight borne on imported Asian chestnut trees toward the end of the 19th century wiped out the American chestnut forests by the mid-20th century. But now, thanks to the cross-breeding of blight-resistant Japanese and Chinese chestnuts with European chestnuts and native American chestnuts, growers have the ability to restore productive chestnuts to the local landscape.

When talking chestnuts, noted Anagnostakis, it's important to note the difference between timber chestnuts, which native American trees were, and orchard chestnuts, which are grown for their fruit. "Two thousand years ago, the Japanese were breeding orchard chestnut trees; 3,000 years ago, the Chinese were breeding orchard chestnut trees. They were more interested in the nuts than the timber. Native American chestnuts, which were timber trees, were tall and straight, and though they produced abundant nuts, they were quite small," she explained. Current breeding efforts are devoted to restoring both types of trees.

The international registrar for chestnut cultivars -- meaning anytime anyone anywhere comes up with a new variety of chestnut, it must be registered with the International Horticultural Organization through her -- Anagnostakis said there are seven species of chestnuts and more than 1,000 cultivars of eating chestnuts. About two dozen of them are commercially grown in the United States. Different cultivars do well in different areas, but an orchard tree's primary requirement is acidic soil, she said.

Anagnostakis believes that domestic chestnuts taste better than most imported varieties for two reasons. "The European stuff coming in is second-rate; the good stuff is sold in Europe," she said. Secondly, improper handling typically leads to mealy or moldy product.

Despite their name, chestnuts are not a nut, but a fruit, she explained. "They have to be refrigerated and kept damp. But grocery stores get bags of chestnuts and, instead of putting them in the moist cold display cases, they set them on the floor as though they were nuts, and then they get bad. Probably if the grocery stores, as soon as they got them, refrigerated them with the fruits, they would last longer and they would taste better. But they don't."

"We pick them all at once, otherwise the squirrels will get them," said Hindinger. "We refrigerate them right off the bat, so they stay sweet."

Joseph Cavaliere of Bethany Tree Farm in Bethany, Conn., switched from raising beef cattle to chestnuts about 30 years ago and sells his entire crop to about 10 natural food stores in his area. He notes that most Americans, perhaps because generations have lost touch with chestnut trees, are not as nuts about chestnuts as Europeans are.

Fresh chestnuts are easy to prepare, said Cavaliere. Once the shells are scored with a knife -- either with a straight line or an x on the rounded side -- they can be boiled in the shell, oven roasted or pan-cooked. (Don't try to skip the scoring step; your chestnuts will explode.) "The easiest way is to put them into a frying pan and keep shaking them for about 15 minutes until they open up," he said. Once boiled or roasted, they can be shelled, then combined with seasonings and other ingredients to make a turkey stuffing, or pureed with chocolate to make a dessert.

Raymond Santiago, a sous chef at the Black Forest Inn in Stanhope, suggests sautéed roasted chestnuts and grapes as an alternative to cranberry sauce for Thanksgiving dinner. "Shell the roasted chestnuts and place them in a pan with a little bit of butter just until they're hot, then add whole green seedless grapes at the last moment. The whole thing should take about a minute," he explained.

Once shelled, roasted chestnuts can be pureed and combined with sweet potatoes or butternut squash for a side dish, he added. Alternatively, the puree can be flavored with a touch of maple syrup and butter, then piped through a pastry bag as a festive garnish. Diced roasted chestnuts can lend flavor and texture to pumpkin pie filling, he said.

"Restaurants can introduce people to how good chestnuts really are," said Fulbright. To encourage food service personnel to use more of them, Michigan State installed a mechanical peeler to enable local growers to offer shelled chestnuts. Cooperative Growers, Inc., a group of Michigan chestnut growers, sells frozen shelled and peeled chestnuts, whole and chopped, in 2 1/2-pound bags.

All that remains to be seen is whether the American public will go nuts over American-grown chestnuts.

+ + + + + +

We are a portuguese Trading company. We are offering the possibility of a business relationship on Frozen ( IQF) Peeled Chestnuts.

There are different sizes and sub-products, such as:

100/120 ( fruits/Kg)
130/150
150/180
180/200
+200
Broken
Badly peeled - these are nuts that did not peel well, therefore have some of the inner skin ( B.Peeled Cat 1) or also some of the outer skin ( B. Peeled Cat 2).

The Chestnut season in Europe, starts usually on the last week of October, and lasts until December. Presently we do not have much stock to sell, due to the high demand there is in Europe, and the low yield and quality obtained in Italy, however we would like to start working in your market, and can offer some of the 100/120.

Product can be packed either in 25 Bags, or in 25 Kg cardboard boxes, being the first system cheaper.

Basically that what we have to offer right now, and would like to know by your side, if there is any interest in our product.

Awaiting to hear from you.

Best regards,




Diogo Teixeira de Abreu
Tel: (+351) 93.777.43.55
diogo.abreu@mail.telepac.pt
----- Mensagem original -----
De: nuts
Para: Diogo Teixeira de Abreu
Enviado: Quinta-feira, 13 de Fevereiro de 2003 14:58
Assunto: Re: Frozen peeled Chestnuts