Nuts about chestnuts in California

On a hill just outside the Gold Rush town of Nevada City, California, about an hour northeast of Sacramento, stands a sweet 1890s Victorian farmhouse surrounded by several acres of gardens.

And pride of place belongs to a pair of chestnut trees, probably 60 feet tall and at least a yard across. And from these two sprang most of the chestnuts now grown in the US.

Chestnuts in California? It's easy to think of them as an East Coast nostalgia food, part and parcel of frosty city sidewalks.

But these have a long history in the Golden State, one that a handful of growers are struggling to keep alive.

Quite a number

And if all you've ever had are stale, imported supermarket chestnuts, these California nuts can be a revelation, delicately sweet and slightly chewy.

At one time, the chestnut tree was one of the most numerous on the North American continent.

It is estimated that they accounted for between one quarter and one third of all the trees that grew in the huge forest that blanketed the area from northern Georgia to New England.

Then, at the start of the 20th century, the trees began to die of a fungal spore that may have hitch-hiked on a Chinese chestnut tree imported by the New York Botanical Garden.

The chestnut blight spread like wind-driven wildfire.

Within five years, it had killed most of the chestnuts in the New York area. By the 1950s, only a few trees remained on the entire continent.

Chestnuts are found across a wide swath of the northern hemisphere and other species are not as susceptible to the blight as the American one.

Today, almost all the chestnuts you will find in the US are imported — from Italy, where they are harvested from state-managed forests, or from China and Korea.

But there is an increasing number of chestnut farmers in the US, growing trees that are blight-resistant crosses between the Asian and the European species.

It's a small success but a success nonetheless.

So far, the number of farmers is small and their orchards are young. There probably aren't more than 1,000 acres of chestnuts grown in all of California.

By far, the predominant chestnut variety in the US is the Colossal and the original trees are the two still standing beside that Victorian farmhouse.

How it started

The trees date from the 1870s and are the creation of a California nurseryman named Felix Gillet. One of his biggest contributions was the Colossal chestnut, a cross he developed between the French and the Japanese specimens.

In California, there are scattered plantings of chestnut trees throughout the north, including the Gold Country, but most come from the “nut belt'' around Stockton.

That's where Greg Girolami and his brother Grant have 40 acres of them, with 300 acres of walnut trees and 100 acres of cherry trees.

They sell most of their chestnuts to Asian markets in California.

Not far from the Girolamis' land, on a little patch along the Sacramento River, Harvey Correia is establishing his own orchard. He put in chestnuts, which he now sells online.

It sure is a tough nut to crack!

Preparing chestnuts can be a pain. The shell comes off easily — it's thin and pliable.

It's the skin underneath that's the hassle. One solution is to serve guests roasted chestnuts — and they'll do all the work.

To roast chestnuts, cut an “X'' through the shell on the rounded side, going through the outer shell and scoring the papery inner skin (a chestnut knife with a sharp hook at the tip helps).

Arrange the nuts on a baking sheet and roast at 400°C for about 30 minutes, until they are fragrant and the outer shell begins to blacken and peel back. Serve.

Writer Paula Wolfert suggests laying down a layer of coarse salt in a cast-iron pot, arranging the nuts on top and sprinkling half a teaspoon of fennel seeds over it to add flavour. Cover and roast for 30 minutes.

Another way to start is by carving the “X'' in the round side of the shell. Plunge the chestnuts, about half a pound at a time, into a large pot of boiling water.

Cook until the outer shell begins to soften and become flexible, for three to four minutes.

Transfer the boiled chestnuts to a bowl and cover with a damp towel. Let the chestnuts steam until they are cool, for about two to three minutes.

Break away the outer shell and peel the papery inner skin. The nuts should be golden with no brown skin remaining.

One pound — about 20 nuts — will make about two cups of chopped nuts.

Because of their high moisture content, chestnuts spoil quickly. So refrigerate them.

A few days this way will make the nuts easier to peel and even sweeter.