(Imported) Chestnuts Roasting . . .
If you think the holidays are nuts now, imagine how they must have been around the turn of the century, before the blight.
No, we’re not talking about the commercialization of Christmas, we’re talking about the fungus that killed almost every chestnut tree in America, relegating what was once a national holiday passion for roast nuts into a quaint bit of folklore.
Except for New York City, where such anachronisms are treasured beyond reason, the roast American chestnut ( Castanea dentata ) is a thing of the past. Even in New York, those tasty chestnuts have been imported from either Italy (the less flavorful C. sativa ) or from China (which grows the blight-resistant but even less gastronomically favored C. mollissima ).
Compare that to a mere 80 years ago, when experts estimate that fully 25% of the eastern forests--from New England to Michigan, from Mississippi to Alabama--were made up of C. dentata . An extremely vigorous tree, it grew so quickly there was little need to replant after logging operations--volunteer sprouting began almost immediately after the original trees were cut. Throughout Appalachia, the harvesting of the chestnut was a prime source of winter income.
Then, in 1904, the director of the New York Zoological Park in the Bronx noticed that his chestnut trees had begun to die. Though the cause of the disease was quickly discovered--an airborne fungus (probably imported from China on the roots of Oriental chestnut trees) that enters the trees through wounds in the bark--nothing seemed to stop it.
By the 1930s the blight was well under way (historians theorize that the Great Depression hit poor families in the South especially hard because of the loss of income from chestnut gathering). And by 1950, it had infected virtually the entire range of the tree.
Today there are only a few scattered stands of American chestnuts left--certainly not enough to harvest commercially. Now most of the chestnuts you’ll find in the market come from Italy--particularly from the area called Avelino, just south of Naples, where they are grown in walled orchards. Today even most Italian chestnuts are actually a cross between the traditional varieties and the blight-resistant Chinese trees.
On the West Coast, we see both Chinese chestnuts, which are large, almost round and rather bland, and the Italian chestnuts, which have the distinctive flattened side.
Those who still have American chestnut trees claim that American chestnuts are preferable to the imports. “It’s by far the sweetest,” says Dr. William McDonald, treasurer of the American Chestnut Foundation. “A friend says if you put the three types of nuts in front of a squirrel, he’ll always choose the American one.” The test may be less than impartial. The squirrel, he readily acknowledges, is probably American too.
Many of the Italian chestnuts in the Los Angeles area come from D. De Franco & Sons, a nut house from way back. Founded by Dominic De Franco in 1916, it is now run by his sons, Victor and Sam. And Sam reports sales of chestnuts are up 25% to 35% this year. “Why? I don’t know,” he says. “Who can explain these things?”
Chestnuts are almost always cooked before use. Just cut an X on the flat side of the leathery shell and roast in a 400-degree oven 20 to 30 minutes. Then peel both the shell and the thin, bark-like inner skin. Or you can boil them for 15 minutes and then peel.
