Festively restive
Christmas may be some way off but sweet chestnuts are beginning to take shape, writes David Overend.
It may be a bit early to be thinking about Christmas – even if some shops may like us to think otherwise. Yet Nature herself (no man could be as creative as a woman) is already preparing for the festive season. You will have to look carefully to see what’s happening but there are clear signs that one of the simple joys of Christmas is even now being prepared.
Chestnuts, those tasty treats that started life in Italy but which have become synonymous with December 25
(or November 1 on the island of Madeira where there is an annual chestnut festival), are taking shape on one of the most stunning of trees – Castanea sativa, the sweet chestnut as opposed to the more commonly seen horse chestnut.
Castanea sativa is not something you’re likely to see in your average garden – it’s a fast-growing, deciduous tree which has long, toothed leaves and conspicuous yellow catkins but which grows far too much to be accommodated outside the grounds of a stately home.
But once seen, never forgotten because this is truly a magnificent tree with rugged, grooved bark, wonderful leaves and eyecatching flowers. And, then, of course, there are the fruits.
Castanea sativa grows to be a big, beautifully-shaped tree which thrives in full sun and a well-drained soil, although it’s pretty tough and can tolerate most sites where it can easily climb up to a height of more than 100ft, with a girth of 20ft or more.
It’s related to the long-lived oaks and is quite capable of living to a similar age – many hundreds of years, although some specimens have been dated at more than 1,000.
So, Castanea sativa, the sweet chestnut, Spanish chestnut or just chestnut, is a species of tree in the family Fagaceae, native to southern Europe and Asia Minor, and widely cultivated throughout the temperate world, is a substantial, longlived deciduous tree, famous for its fruits.
To produce a good harvest of these edible nuts, the tree needs a mild climate and adequate moisture. A late spring frost can mean a much-reduced crop and it hates lime.
Chestnuts are traditionally roasted in their tough brown husks after removing the spiny cupules in which they grow on the tree, the husks being peeled off and discarded and the hot chestnuts dipped in salt before eating them.
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas...