In the south, a man named Dunstan found a lone tree that turned out to be blight resistant. He crossed that three with the Japanese chestnut which is naturally resistant, and then crossed it back several times. He has now produced a blight resistant American Chestnut and is selling them throughout the south. I have four juvenile trees in my back acre. One has already produced its first good crop.
@@sumarbrander3354 Because it generally saves time/money. CRISPR and gene editing would take a lot of money to get a lab to do it. If you have a resistant tree, just pollinate it with another, and you have a resistant population without the need to alter genetic information directly.
It wasn't mentioned in the report, but at the University of Syracuse they've developed a transgenic American Chestnut, with a gene from wheat that detoxifies the blight's oxalic acid. They have completely resistant trees and is awaiting approval by the FDA. Hopefully they'll be approved for Canada as well.
Can't believe how late in the game and how little effort has been expended on attempting to restore a keystone species of eastern North American forests -- same goes for the white oak. Europeans simply butchered the ecosystem -- and then shrugged their shoulders. Chestnut lumber is, among other qualities, highly rot-resistant. As such, it was prized for use as fence posts, railroad ties and telegraph/telephone poles. etc.. When the severity of the blight was recognized, what was the response of the corporations? To develop a program in concert with scientists in an attempt to save a treasured resource? No, instead they started a campaign to pressure land owners to allow them to cut down any chestnut trees they 'owned' before they were lost to the Chinese blight and therefore became a 'total economic loss'. This late slaughter of remaining healthy trees may possibly have wiped out any genetically-resistant specimens of the American chestnut. They paved Paradise and put up a parking lot...
Sometimes back east you can find old fence posts that are actually limbs from old chestnut trees that are still good and hard inside !!!! My dad had a hobby if hunting them and he would sell a few now and then to woodcarving to finance his hobby of rescuing as many as he could .
@@sabatino1977 yeah , both actually . You have to actually see an example and learn by trial and error . You have to put in a lot hours in good old shoe leather time hiking old land claims back in the woods that went back even to colonial times .
In Germany it's super common, many people actually go to the woods to collect them. Also a traditional Christmas dinner is goose with chestnuts cooked in the gravy. 🤤
also here in sweden they are everywhere. Not very common tho that people cook them except the more older generation. Alot of young people dont even know you can cook and eat them.
They used to say, a squirrel could jump from one American Chestnut tree to another, all the way across the country. You could find something to eat the whole way.
I had roasted chestnuts like 2 or 3 times this year. I had no idea that in Noth America, billions of chestnut trees died. That's so incredibly sad. I hope they manage to reintroduce them.
@@bonnievalls5037 Happily, they are not extinct, although significantly reduced in number. As the video suggests, some trees died down to the root and were able to recover. Some trees were found to be resistant to blight, continuing to grow. University researchers have also tried reproducing trees through genetic cloning of existing root stock, as well as conventional grafting or rooting techniques. If you search online, I believe there are 4 'varieties' for sale: American, American-resistant, American-Chinese cross, and Chinese.
In the UK we still eat them in winter. They are free to collect in the forest and delicous. ❤ We also make chestnut stuffing for Christmas dinners. It's really common.
Those were probably imported Chinese Chestnuts. I believe you can still order them online but you can't ship to Canada. They are very expensive to import so the street vendors stopped selling them.
Another one of those "small group of dedicated people changing the world" stories. The very best of luck to you all. I was part of a group like this in the 60s where we reintroduced a group of Canada Maximus goose to Ontario because they had all been killed of in the meat hunts of the '20s before there were regulations to protect species. I recently found out that from those 12 goslings we hatched in our garage and released into a pond that we had aquired in a protected area, there are enough of them now for a cull hunt. Never doubt that your efforts will pay off.
@Basement Bohab same goes when their is to much of species and their natural inclinations lead to environmental problems wild pigs are great example of this besides the fact that they are pretty dangerous like he said the numbers become too high and something be it plant or animal without intervention will be having a very hard time one of my teacher explained it like this "their is a forested island its deer population has been hunted to near extinction so they add more deer now their is little room or edible plants left on the island so we should add some wolves the same problem occurs with the wolves and the only solution is to systematically and usually only once or a few times cull their populations
Just this year, while listening to Christmas songs, I wondered why there were so many lyrics about chestnuts. I have never had a chestnut in my life, but all they did was sing about them back in the day. This video was recommended to me. I had no idea about any of this, and I'm so glad for the background. Great video! I hope the American Chestnuts can make a comeback.
Do try some roasted chestnuts though. They are awesome. It's fun to peel and eat them slowly, while they are still warm, I can't really describe the flavour. It is so unique, earthy but sweet and mealy.
I remember learning about this a few years ago. It’s such a shame because American chestnuts are truly delicious. A side note, it’s also creepy how quickly something so common and kinda important can fade from societal consciousness. What other important things have we forgotten and no longer know about.
This is one of the reasons people should never try to "sneak" unchecked agricultural products into a country/area You never know what "just this one" might lead to. We have rules and regulations for a reason sometimes from lessons learned like this one.
@@ikichullo I wish I could dismiss that as mere racism, but I have known enough cases of it. Look at all the Chinese restaurants, for example, that refuse to take anything but cash. They do it so they can lie about their income and get taxed at a lower rate. That said, I don't think there was any regulation against imports at the time. It was because of this disaster that we started import restrictions on agricultural products.
@@eccremocarpusscaber5159 Don't whine. All kinds of plants, animals besides people from other countries brought here decimating plant animal humans with disease, parasites and other animals competing for food with already indigenous animals here. Take a look at what had happened to the Bison let alone what was done to indigenous people here. Heard of Trail if Tears. No need to the answer that's a rhetorical question and you probably don't have the answer.
My neighbors have several American chestnuts that were given to them as saplings 40 years ago from the American chestnut association. They are still doing great and we plant the chestnuts from them all over the forest every year. The germination rate of the chestnuts is amazing. They are very strong trees if they are able to beat the blight. We plant them every year hoping our grandkids will have them all over the place.
I’d love to get a few. I plan on planting as many as I can on 100 acres. I’m looking at buying in the central part of OK not a lot of trees to infect them and just enough rain.🤞
Here in Japan we crush chestnuts and cook them with our rice to create a very sweet mix, and to know that it was our trees that gave such a horrid blight to a national tree shocked and saddened me. But knowing that they’re making a comeback makes me hopeful, I hope these trees and the traditions around them return full force one day!
@@TheMistressMisery but the traders should’ve realized that there were something wrong with those trees, security should have been tighter especially since a wrong move could effect the local environment incredibly. Case and point: this video
We had an old chestnut tree on my dad’s land in southeastern Alabama. I had no idea just how rare they were. Just as sad was the blight that killed most of the wild red mulberry trees in my area of North America. Mulberries are like blackberries but sweeter.
im starting to think were they killed on purpose ? blight was purposely introduced so everyone wouldn't have all this natural healthy FREE food. i too remember as a kid mulberries. and how there was fruit trees here or there in peoples front and back yards. cherry trees pear peach crab apples and grapes.
Germany here, you can get freshly roasted chestnuts all winter. Not specifically a christmas tradition at all, and one of the few things that wasn't outlawed this year. But i personally am not terribly fond of them. I'd love some spiced winter wine though. I believe the sweet European chestnut tree is different from the American one.
That blight was really something. Impressive! American chestnut is such a highly valued wood. It makes absolutely gorgeous floors, but I now far beyond the budget of any normal family. In Spain, we can still eat chestnuts roasted in barrels on the streets during the winter time. Absolutely lovely when your fingers feel cold.
"It is St. Martin's Day, We'll eat chestnuts, we'll taste the wine." Here in Portugal street vendors sell roast chestnuts in the streets in the Autumn. The chestnuts are roasted on charcoal fire and it releases a mouthwatering scent. It is a tradition to eat chestnuts on the 11th of November to mark the beginning of the cold and rainy season.
Living in the Açores, I have 2 trees, but it is a fight with the rats and mice on who gets them first. Nothing better than roasting them and then using a coffee grinder to make a course flour. I then use it for the crust (like graham crackers) for a pumpkin pie. There is a great chestnut roaster made in mainland Portugal made of a black ceramic.
Never thought of myself as a horticulturalist, but this past fall I planted about 40 chestnuts in a small nursery at my farm in Pennsylvania. My father has a Chinese chestnut, and his neighbor has an American chestnut right next to it. So after getting fruit from both, I decided to start planting these guys in hopes of maybe one day having a heavy harvest of fruit I can enjoy. Don't know if ill live long enough to see it, but I'm going to try.
How is It growing chestnuts? I'm in 10b on the west coast What if there was a food forest? Where there were intermediary topiary levels We get a marine layer when the wind is strong How would they grow in pots?
@@VincentGonzalezVeg I don't think they'd grow in pots at all, or at least not much beyond germination. I don't know about the rest of what you asked, other than they never grew there originally. They may, but I couldn't tell you if they could. I literally stuck mine in the ground 5 months ago after I used the tiller to break up the ground first.
Are these the same chestnut trees that have the short, spiky, thorns on the casings? The ones shown in the video look different. Also, what are horse chestnuts? I live in Minnestoa.
@@VincentGonzalezVeg Since you are in 10b you should grow some macadamia nut trees. I am in USDA zone 10a, Western Sunset zone 23 about 5 miles from the coast. Macadamias thrive here. Vista, California.
Same, I’ve become obsessed with the native chestnut species of North America. If you like this story look up the ozark chinquapin. It’s a sibling species to the American chestnut that was similarly wiped out. The main difference being that as far as we know the ozark chinquapin tops out around 80ft. They’ve found about 45 resistant trees in the wild and crossed them and have produced blight resistant trees. If the American chestnut doesn’t make it, at least we can bring back its brethren.
My 1920s home was framed out with chestnut. It was in a blue collar neighborhood so it wasn't a fancy home, just a standard old four-square. But framed in hardwood because why not, it was everywhere. And I can say this: 100 year old chestnut joists are damned hard if you have to drive a nail into them!
Where do you live? Here in southern Germany, I have never encountered a wild chestnut (I'm out in the forests around my home almost every day, with open eyes. Tons of beech, oak, pine, maple, some yew, birch, spruce, fir, hazel, robinia, ash, linden. Not a single chestnut ever).
I’m English and I always used to go the woods/forest to pick chestnuts in autumn every year (like september-october, whenever the chestnuts start falling and it’s in season) with my grandad. We live right by sherwood forest and sherwood pines - where the legend of Robin Hood comes from, and that is the woods/forest we went in every year to pick them.
I remember when I was a little kid , about 5 or 6, 60 years ago, walking down the streets in New York City with my Grandfather. Vendors on the sidewalks would sell roasted chestnuts and they smelled so good. My Grandfather would always buy a bag . They were so good. Brings tears to my eyes.
I am 66 and have similar memories of smelling roasting chestnuts from street vendors on family trips to New York when I was a kid. I like the smell but wasn't particularly impressed when I tried eating the chestnuts. The street-vendor's giant pretzels were better!
Remember, whenever you feel you just cant make a difference in the world. Know, you too can fuck everything up, for everyone while having the best of intentions.
In Germany we still do. We also go to the woods and collect them ourselves and prepare them at home. You can also purchase them on Christmas Markets or fresh markets. Since I live in the US I really miss chestnuts 😞
Whole Foods and specialty grocery stores carries them. I can't have Christmas without roasted chestnuts. And I have this cool little gadget that X's a cut!
I work at Whole Foods and we sell Chestnuts from mid November to late January & people buy them weekly and roast these nuts. Their stories are very interesting regarding the roasting & consumption of chestnuts.
@@search4greatness I vividly remember the giant, ghostly gray, dead trees in Kentucky. They were rot resistant, and stood for many years before falling down. We couldn't even use them for firewood, they were too big and the wood was too hard to chop down.
Almost certain that it is a Chinese Chestnut, just like the one in my mother’s backyard. They are immune to what killed the American variety. They also hurt, when you ride into a low hanging limb while cutting the grass on a rider mower :-) .
Its comforting knowing there are people out there that care enough to make a difference. Thank you! I now feel robbed of inheriting a life of quality chesnut wood over particle board. I don't think I've ever eaten one. I hope it survives!
Well yes, but there are also people who are why the trees are nearly extinct. The whole reason for the blight was the guy who imported the Japanese chestnut trees.
@@CassThompson-p4i Maybe they went bad? They're pretty popular in the Middle East, delicious when fresh, and utterly horrible when off, even though the only visible difference is that they're a little shriveled/dry
As a forester the odds are looking good! This also means big things for other tree species in a similar spot or about to be, like American elm and various red oak species. American elms are all but gone due to a fungal disease and red oak species are being decimated by oak wilt. If we can create a pretty complete genome of these species find the gene that would help their resistance we can save our native forests. It’s important to note, the loss of chestnuts put a lot more weight on oak trees to feed wildlife. They’re one of our last large mast producing species that even comes close to the chestnuts. Without oaks our forests would crumble.
There's a chestnut blight in Europe too, it's a bug name _cynips_ which started in Italy and Corsica and is moving Westwards but hasn't affected all of France yet. Chestnut wood is resistant to rot so it"s used for fence posts and other applications where it's in contact with humidity.
We do. Well at least in Europe. We actually have a tree in our garden. Seriously, figure out the blight thing & plant them again in North America. They’re wonderful.
OK, this is really weird. I have never eat not seen a chestnut in my life, that is until about 3 hours ago. That's when my roommate, on a whim, brought home five bags of them (long story why). We both joked about roasting them over an open fire but neither of us really had a clue as to how do it. My plan was to go to the University of UA-cam to find out how, but I never got around to it (I was sidetracked watching The Mandalorian). When I finished watching that video, I decided to see what's on YT. To my surprise, in my feed was this video, which was fascinating to watch. So is this serendipity, or is YT listening in on my conversations?
It's coincidence. I don't think anyone has ever proven that audio is recorded and analyzed and used for recommendations. Not even ads. There's been some "attempts", but they didn't test properly.
Are you kidding? Of course they read your texts, and listen in when ye think your phone is off, much as when you are actually talking on the phone. Now U know!
@@loki2240 Exactly. Which is why we keep transfusing a few trillion dollars a year into the big banks so the free market stays free. Otherwise they would be held hostage and you wouldn't want that on your conscience would you? Yes. Ethics in the world of high finance.
My gf roasted a bunch of chestnuts about two months ago. We have a few American chestnuts around plus the chinese chestnut trees along a bike trail. She gathered up 2 grocery bags of them and just roasted them in a pot over the fire. She absolutely annihilated them, they were gone within 3 days. Smell like chicken. We're right about in the middle of Chestnut habitat in West Virginia. You can still find small patches of them growing, usually isolated by farmland, or some found in the middle of otherwise plowed grazing land that seemed to be protected by the isolation.
IO am sure my mother in law found the ones she planted in virginia, Very likely by a tree that was resistant. Shes always had a few around her house. That said they aren't big at all. However, she does get nuts from them.
@@NothinbutRye I just checked for some of our Harrison's Chestnuts (California) and found, "Sorry, we don't have chestnuts for sale in 2020." Maybe I can get some shipped from Canada . . .
@@nemo227 I dunno about species there, but here in Armenia we have chestnuts and I like to eat them raw, they are crunchy and delicious, roasting them makes it too soft for my taste.
@@tertigvah Crunchy! That's the way nuts are supposed to be, crunchy. Otherwise, we have peanut butter, sunflower nut butter, cashew butter . . . Which are all good on toast, plain bread, or crackers. I'm going to check in some stores here in California and see if we have any chestnuts imported from Armenia. I know that there are immigrants from Armenia.
My Mom did this every Christmas Eve. It was part of our Italian Tradition.I remember the big cast iron skillet she would use. I grew up in the 50's and Christmas was a big deal in our family. The tree, the music, special foods we pretty much only had during the Holiday. All the Holiday cookies my Mom would make. We'd play games during the night then opened gifts at Midnight. When I was a tot, my folks never put the tree up until Christmas Eve after my sister and I went to bed. In the morning, there would be the decorated tree with all the presents underneath. We always thought Santa had come while we were sleeping and did it all. I was so lucky to have the parents I did. To go through all that trouble just because we believed there was a Santa. We also went to Midnight Mass when I was older. That was a tradition too ! I sure love and miss my folks.🎄🎅👼🦌🎁
The news of chestnut trees returning makes me so happy words are not enough! Back in the 1950s my father had one replanted in our yard. It was about twenty feet high at the time. As a child then my family would pick up the nuts and roast them. Such good times. Then it became infected and died. Someday it would be nice to plant one in my lifetime so my children and grandchildren could see for themselves how marvelous they are !
I never knew what those spikey balls were but I may have come across an american Chestnut tree almost 15 years ago. that's insane. I also didn't know anything about chestnuts or the near complete extinction of the American Chestnut tree.
Here in Portugal, that's a must.... Those chestnuts (we call them ´´castanhas´´ around here) were once used instead of the now famous and well known ´´potatoes´´ before we even heard of potatoes, and I can see that I am not the only Portuguese commenting here...ahahah, it seems that chestnuts bring us all together here. I am glad that you are taking care of them again as they are a treat and the trees are awesome. We have one in the North of Portugal that experts say, is around 1300 to 1600 years old and it is beautiful. If that's true, it is even older than our country that has only around 900 years......It's trunk has 13 m in perimeter.
As a carpenter and someone who always wondered what that song was about, I wish these people with such dedication success in restoring the American Chestnut!
Perhaps, one day you can build a "chest" from some of the wood, and yes, this tree type is where the name comes from. ua-cam.com/video/PIAxrnkity0/v-deo.html
It's pretty widespread in Europe. Belgium, France and Germany hold christmas markets where that thing is a standard, along with hot cocoa or hot spiced wine. Chestnut trees are so widespread that most kids go to collect them when the spiky shells start falling off.
@@BC-yl3qbwe have none in America, our native chestnuts are gone. Most Americans have never seen or even heard about this species, to bring it back to our forests would be a honor.
@@terrariaHERO1 The video said it was infected ones from China. Hoping we get ours back growing and healthy soon. Trying to imagine how horrible the importer felt once he realized he had brought over sick trees
@@gotsteem Not very long. The problem is the chestnut just dies back to the stump and then sends up new infected shoots to keep sending out spores for years if not decades. A lot of times when people find these "survivor" American Chestnuts they're these infected trees that keep dying back and sprouting again from the old roots. Also oak trees, and some other trees IIRC, as well as the oriental chestnuts can be infected and survive so there are plenty of reservoirs of the disease.
@@KenS1267 Scientists are breeding genetically resistant trees at the New York State Environmental College of Forestry and Biology. *Thanks to "THOSE LIBERALS" who fund education* we may have a solution geneticliteracyproject.org/2020/06/23/biotechnology-forestry-revival-projects-now-include-elms-along-with-american-chestnuts/
That song has such a melancholy undertone… Beneath the cheerfulness of the season is a quiet, reflective, feeling. The sadness of winter is part of what gives Christmas its beauty.
That’s such a sad and unfortunate loss, one I didn’t even know about. Thank you so very much for making this documentary, it almost hurts to just think of this
I love when nature proves more resilient than our negligent or willful mistakes. But near-misses should be avoided! I'm not a "tree-hugger," but every human should be an environmentalist, to some degree.
My parents and older sister LOVED roasted chestnuts. Me and my younger sister think they're disgusting. Our family tradition is arguing over how disgusting they are. Three against two, it's a rough go.
On wintertime visits to New York City with my family when I was a kid I always liked the smell of roasting chestnuts in the air, but when I tried eating the nuts I wasn't impressed.
In Turkey we call them "Kestane" like old latin pronounciation and we still roasting them in the winter time. There are deserts made out of chestnuts . Such delicacy...
In Portuguese we say ´´castanha´´. Very much like ´´Kestane´´ and the Ukrainian ´´Kashtan´´....as the ´´c´´ reads like a ´´K´´. Greetings to everyone. Nice that this little treat puts us talking to each other.......
Here in Europe it's very much still a thing. I love love love roasted chestnuts. Reminds me of when I was little and my grandma would roast them on a wood burning cook stove and the warm cozy smell would spread throughout the whole house
Yeah we roast them on the open fire in Britain all the time, line them up on the grate. I hate the taste of them though so I wouldn't lament the end of the tradition 😂
Here in Jersey, the original Channel Islands Jersey, we have lots of Chestnut trees , many available to the public. Therefore we are doubly lucky as ours are free to eat. One of my favourites at this time of year. Roast Chestnuts in a tea towel on your lap and a Christmas film , heavenly.
I spent ages 1-5 and 12-18 in Germany. Especially in the High school years we always had roasted chestnuts in the Fall whether in Germany or visiting England. I just assumed it was available everywhere. One of the many “culture shocks” I encountered when we returned stateside was there was no one roasting chestnuts in the U.S.
I’m from Spain but live in the US, and I’ve been roasting or boiling chestnuts with anise 😋 every fall since I came. They’re a bit pricy but available in every supermarket of my area.
Americans wish every house could be roasting chestnuts. The blight absolutely devastated our chestnut forests, so imported chestnuts are pricey. It can still be done, but the fact that it isn't readily available has deeply harmed the tradition.
You can get them in Sydney, Australia but I've no idea if they are locally grown or imported. I've never heard of chestnut trees growing in the wild here.
In the north of Spain we relate Chestnuts more with October/November rather than Christmas/December, all the Celtic-rooted communities (Asturias & Galicia) celebrate Amagüestu (Asturian) and Magosto (Galician) a havest feast that mostly features chestnuts (And in Asturias, our particular kind of Cider)
I live near a university campus that planted a couple American Chestnuts, and it's such a joy to watch them growing and producing more and more each year! I had no idea there'd been such a massive wipe out, and now I want to save nuts from next years crop to plant in my friends yards!
Many years ago a hybrid was created from an ancient surviving American chestnut tree and a Chinese chestnut tree; known as the "Dunstan Chestnut" this hybrid has all the characteristics of the American chestnut and is completely blight resistant. There are a number of Dunstan Chestnut tree farms today which sell tons of nuts every year. And I'm thrilled that several years ago I planted a full acre of Dunstan Chestnut trees for future generations to enjoy. This Fall I added a number of Hazelnut trees to the plot as well. I'm hoping to add some blight resistant chinquapins to the future forest too. What fun!
I remember eating roasted chestnuts 🌰 in Rome, Italy. Standing on a street corner I purchased roasted chestnuts from a street vendor. They are so delicious. Now I'm craving roasted 🌰 chestnuts nuts!
In the UK we do. Supermarkets sell a lot of chestnuts. Many European countries eat chestnuts with sellers standing in the winter streets selling hot chestnuts. Germany, Portugal and Spain all sell chestnuts at this time of year.
@Mark OnTheBlueRidge From the UK and i like to stuff invasive Grey American Squirrel Sadle with Chestnuts and Sultanas, wrap in smokey bacon and roast in Lard. Save our Red Squirrels, eat Grey.
I grew up in Western New York and remember both the elm and chestnut trees dying. My parents told me that the magnificent elm trees in our front yard we’re doomed. We didn’t have a chestnut tree in our yard but I remember picking up chestnuts when I walked to school. My grandmother roasted them every fall. When I was 12 years old my family moved away to an area without chestnut trees. This video brought back many memories.😢
Most Elms were gone when I was born in the 80s, we had a few spindly elms but they would die young. It is sad to see Beaches diseased and Ashes that are over one hundred years old that we are loosing in the last 3 years.
Here in CT we got invaded the past few years with the ash borer, I had 4 ash trees all die within 2 years (two very large, 100'+, & expensive to take down), and while driving around that year I was noticing dead ash trees by the dozens around my neighborhood. It's a shame because they tend to be good shade trees. I did get probably 4-5 cords of firewood though
Now it’s happening with oak trees too. I’m a huge fan of the genetic modification research done with the chestnut because it brings so much hope to us in the natural resources that the same could be done to elm, oak, and beech- maybe even the ash trees too! We introduced diseases are forests were never exposed to, we’re losing our native trees and in turn our wildlife.
This is wonderful, thank you! As a furniture designer/builder and historian (to a point) I've admired vintage furniture made from Chestnut and have been aware of the Chestnut blight for a very long time, I've always dreamt of a source so I could make beautiful pieces from Chestnut. As a kid in New Jersey, back in the 70's, there were still Chestnut's around so I recognize the spiky nut hulls - I'm hoping blight resistant saplings will become available because when they are I'll be on a mission to plant them everywhere :)
For my late father and many people in North Italy during the war chestnuts were sometimes the only available food that could be had for free as it was a matter of collecting them from the forest floor. They ate them roasted fresh but also dried them up to be ground into flour to be consumed at a later date. A little Spaniard who worked as a shoemaker in my hometown told me once that he got tired of eating chestnuts during the civil war years and thereafter saying that his mother added chestnuts to almost every dish while they were in season and afterwards as flour. For thousands of years chestnuts were a staple food in the Northern hemisphere but unfortunately most historians overlook that fact.
Here in the UK, chestnuts are an essential part of a side dish served with Christmas dinner. For convenience, take a pack of vacuum sealed chestnuts, cut them in half (or boil and peel your own) and set aside. Cut a little good smoked bacon into strips and fry until crispy - don't remove the fat. Trim and cut in half enough Brussels sprouts to have a 3 or 4:1 ratio to your chestnuts and add to boiling salted water. Boil the sprouts for 5 minutes (if you boil for more than 7 minutes, they will go mushy and bitter) and drain. Combine the chestnuts and sprouts with the bacon and fry for a minute or so to warm the chestnuts through, take off the heat and sir through a teaspoon of honey and serve. Canadians are permitted to replace the honey with maple syrup.
Are they ? Perhaps in your household. I've never heard of it or known anyone who has or regards them as "essential" The only thing they were used for was playing conkers at school...and no one does that anymore either. Sadly.
@@kevinnimmo645 Sweet chestnuts and horse chestnuts (conkers) are completely different things. The fact that you don't know the difference speaks volumes.
I bought some chestnuts at the store just the other day and they were the nicest-looking chestnuts I've seen in years: big, healthy, unblemished chestnuts. I can't wait to see how they taste on Thanksgiving!
I -know- knew where there -is- was a surviving tree in Nova Scotia, though I haven't been to it in over 40 years, but it was alone, deep in the forest.
Damn, I was just telling someone the other day about the black tree fungus that has been spreading. This piece is really hard to accept as well. Pennsylvania born and raised. Didn’t even think about how many fewer chestnuts there are today until seeing this video suggested. Friends and I used to tag each other with chestnuts. Getting zinged was enough to make you tear up, that’s for sure
I too am in PA.. our land is surrounded by National Forest. There is a fungus killed most trees in our neighborhood and all through the forests here. Very concerning
Yeah, I've noticed over the past 5-10 years, so many trees seem dead or dying with most of the bark stripped or white, in batches all around. I also live at basically ground zero for the Spotted Lanternfly outbreak. They've been greatly reduced compared to a few years ago, but still see them.
I've heard about this through woodworking and it's just absolutely devastating. I hope we can replant and rebuild the American Chestnut in a scientific way that holds sustainability for the future
We have a formidable tree actually in our garden here in The Netherlands. I never knew it is such a problem. The idea of importing from Japan seemed great but wow what a burden to be the one to have made that error. And to see this woman cry when she discovered a wild tree... it matters indeed! Glad people give so much effort to restoring.
We just moved into an older home, we hope to restore, and there is a chestnut tree in our yard! It even had chestnuts this year! We save a bucket full for Christmas. We're located in North MS very close to Memphis, TN! The tree is very large and tall, shows no signs of the blight at all, Praise God! His name is Chester. We'll be taking great care of Chester as long as we're here.
We are moving to Georgia this month and if we find any chestnut trees I'm planning to lay hands on it and pray for it's protection and for it to be healed of any disease it might have, in Jesus name! I never tried fresh roasted chestnuts but enjoyed packaged ones.. I imagine roasted is even more delightful 😆
I eat tons of roasted chesnuts each winter. I'm from Mexico, and even though they are quite expensive my family has consumed them for generations. My great-grandparents used to buy them for my grandparents and my grandparents used to get them for our parents and now we, the younger generation, also buy them and roast them to eat together as a family. They are a bit hard to get but we can always find a place that sells them each year. I think the ones we buy are imported from Europe, but I don't know why they only import them during the winter when you can eat them year-round over there.
I live in Rochester NY, and one of our community gardens features chestnut trees. I was able to go chestnutting with my Cub across the street from where my Daddy grew up, walking distance from downtown Rochester! What an experience to have in the 20s! Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas!
Yes, I didn't know that the US and Canada had a problem with them, I always assumed that they were as prevalent there as they are here, my grandmother for example would frequently put hot roasted chestnuts alongside meat when she cooks some and it is delicious and I hope everyone is able to test this
Always heard about “chestnuts roasting on an open fire “ in Christmas song, but never saw one. Went to Italy in the winter and bought roasted chestnuts from a street vendor. I was so pleased. 🎄
In the south, a man named Dunstan found a lone tree that turned out to be blight resistant. He crossed that three with the Japanese chestnut which is naturally resistant, and then crossed it back several times. He has now produced a blight resistant American Chestnut and is selling them throughout the south. I have four juvenile trees in my back acre. One has already produced its first good crop.
🤓 haven't you heard? geneticly modifed plants are evil
A much better way than cutting and pasting in CRISPR.
? ? ?@@UnitSe7en
They’re trying to make a tree resistant without crossbreeding so it retains all of its original characteristics
@@sumarbrander3354 Because it generally saves time/money. CRISPR and gene editing would take a lot of money to get a lab to do it. If you have a resistant tree, just pollinate it with another, and you have a resistant population without the need to alter genetic information directly.
It wasn't mentioned in the report, but at the University of Syracuse they've developed a transgenic American Chestnut, with a gene from wheat that detoxifies the blight's oxalic acid. They have completely resistant trees and is awaiting approval by the FDA. Hopefully they'll be approved for Canada as well.
I hope so....
" transgenic American Chestnut"
coming soon to a forest near you: GMO forests.
So far, it's the only GMO species that I like!
@Latisha Queen Living = Cancer, Heart Disease, Stroke and Cell Degradation. No one gets out alive.
Can't believe how delightful it was to learn about chestnut trees.
And how horrified I was to learn of their fate in this country.
Can't believe how late in the game and how little effort has been expended on attempting to restore a keystone species of eastern North American forests -- same goes for the white oak. Europeans simply butchered the ecosystem -- and then shrugged their shoulders.
Chestnut lumber is, among other qualities, highly rot-resistant. As such, it was prized for use as fence posts, railroad ties and telegraph/telephone poles. etc.. When the severity of the blight was recognized, what was the response of the corporations? To develop a program in concert with scientists in an attempt to save a treasured resource? No, instead they started a campaign to pressure land owners to allow them to cut down any chestnut trees they 'owned' before they were lost to the Chinese blight and therefore became a 'total economic loss'.
This late slaughter of remaining healthy trees may possibly have wiped out any genetically-resistant specimens of the American chestnut. They paved Paradise and put up a parking lot...
Sometimes back east you can find old fence posts that are actually limbs from old chestnut trees that are still good and hard inside !!!! My dad had a hobby if hunting them and he would sell a few now and then to woodcarving to finance his hobby of rescuing as many as he could .
@@doughoward6401 - I wonder how you can tell what type of tree a piece of wood is from. Different grain? Color?
@@sabatino1977 yeah , both actually . You have to actually see an example and learn by trial and error . You have to put in a lot hours in good old shoe leather time hiking old land claims back in the woods that went back even to colonial times .
In Germany it's super common, many people actually go to the woods to collect them.
Also a traditional Christmas dinner is goose with chestnuts cooked in the gravy. 🤤
I love them when I was a kid I lived up north now I live in the south and you can't find them
also here in sweden they are everywhere. Not very common tho that people cook them except the more older generation. Alot of young people dont even know you can cook and eat them.
@@TalentTreant Be careful that you make the difference between European horse-chestnut which is not edible, which is common in Sweden
Spain too.
@@greiver179that’s racist
They provided lumber for the House, shade for the worker, fire for the cook, warmth for the winter, all the while food for the table
And bark for tannic acid to tan hides with.
But they felt lousy as you chewed them.
;)
@@jimrobcoyle The nuts or the hides?
@@jimrobcoyle deez nuts
@@darkmiku2483 get ready to get chomped
They used to say, a squirrel could jump from one American Chestnut tree to another, all the way across the country. You could find something to eat the whole way.
Yeah squirrel is mighty tasty
@@glhmediclmao
i think they say that about all the countrys in the world
beause they also say that about Spain xD
@@NikoMoraKamubut America is far larger than Spain
That would be a big jump, the chestnut tree's extreme western range is like Illinois.
I had roasted chestnuts like 2 or 3 times this year. I had no idea that in Noth America, billions of chestnut trees died. That's so incredibly sad. I hope they manage to reintroduce them.
I believe they are extinct. Atleast the American tree is.
@@bonnievalls5037There's been a few videos here on UA-cam about wild chestnuts popping up in the US. Last few months it looks like.
There are a few American chestnut trees around. Considering they can self-pollinate you only need a few to survive.
They still exist in eastern canada but they're quite rare, most chestnut trees remaining are big old trees.
@@bonnievalls5037 Happily, they are not extinct, although significantly reduced in number. As the video suggests, some trees died down to the root and were able to recover. Some trees were found to be resistant to blight, continuing to grow. University researchers have also tried reproducing trees through genetic cloning of existing root stock, as well as conventional grafting or rooting techniques. If you search online, I believe there are 4 'varieties' for sale: American, American-resistant, American-Chinese cross, and Chinese.
In the UK we still eat them in winter. They are free to collect in the forest and delicous. ❤
We also make chestnut stuffing for Christmas dinners. It's really common.
We tried them one Christmas in the early 90s and nobody liked them so we never did them again. We still have sprouts though and nobody likes them.
Wow. I remember hotdog carts in Philly and NY used to roast chestnuts. Didn't realize why they disappeared.
I remember those smoky carts with the fire under the chestnuts here in NYC.
@@lunhil12 the year before I had some roasted chestnuts from one of the hotdogs carts.
How long ago was that?
@@brianao.316 The late 80s was the last time i have seen roasted chestnuts for sale and it was only around the holidays of course.
Those were probably imported Chinese Chestnuts. I believe you can still order them online but you can't ship to Canada. They are very expensive to import so the street vendors stopped selling them.
Another one of those "small group of dedicated people changing the world" stories. The very best of luck to you all. I was part of a group like this in the 60s where we reintroduced a group of Canada Maximus goose to Ontario because they had all been killed of in the meat hunts of the '20s before there were regulations to protect species. I recently found out that from those 12 goslings we hatched in our garage and released into a pond that we had aquired in a protected area, there are enough of them now for a cull hunt. Never doubt that your efforts will pay off.
Thank you for your service. : )
Congratulations. How good that must feel.
@Basement Bohab same goes when their is to much of species and their natural inclinations lead to environmental problems wild pigs are great example of this besides the fact that they are pretty dangerous like he said the numbers become too high and something be it plant or animal without intervention will be having a very hard time one of my teacher explained it like this "their is a forested island its deer population has been hunted to near extinction so they add more deer now their is little room or edible plants left on the island so we should add some wolves the same problem occurs with the wolves and the only solution is to systematically and usually only once or a few times cull their populations
@@alexcunningham1647 pigs are invasive. I believe they're from Europe. So there shouldn't be any hesitation to just harvest them all.
Great story friend, and great thing to do in your youth. You're a cool dude
I am not even american, but this saddens me so much...
Plant some trees! We need more healthy trees!! I got one growing in my room. What a good friend he is too!
@@stefanschleps8758 Got one in my room too. Can't wait to smoke it.
Wait till you hear about the passenger pigeon - shortly mentioned in this video.
there are other chestnut species
Unfortunately, this happened to more species of trees I America :(( they were and are simply not adapted to the many euroasian diseases
Just this year, while listening to Christmas songs, I wondered why there were so many lyrics about chestnuts. I have never had a chestnut in my life, but all they did was sing about them back in the day. This video was recommended to me. I had no idea about any of this, and I'm so glad for the background. Great video! I hope the American Chestnuts can make a comeback.
I came to say EXACTLY this lol. I guess im not the only one lol
Do try some roasted chestnuts though. They are awesome.
It's fun to peel and eat them slowly, while they are still warm,
I can't really describe the flavour. It is so unique, earthy but sweet and mealy.
I remember learning about this a few years ago. It’s such a shame because American chestnuts are truly delicious.
A side note, it’s also creepy how quickly something so common and kinda important can fade from societal consciousness. What other important things have we forgotten and no longer know about.
It's worth ordering some. They are delicious
Fun fact.
In Russia chestnuts were and still are abundant. Even in the large cities.
However, they're totally unedible)))
This is one of the reasons people should never try to "sneak" unchecked agricultural products into a country/area You never know what "just this one" might lead to. We have rules and regulations for a reason sometimes from lessons learned like this one.
chinese people try sneaking things in all the time and it is maddening.
@@ikichullo I wish I could dismiss that as mere racism, but I have known enough cases of it. Look at all the Chinese restaurants, for example, that refuse to take anything but cash. They do it so they can lie about their income and get taxed at a lower rate.
That said, I don't think there was any regulation against imports at the time. It was because of this disaster that we started import restrictions on agricultural products.
@@papabear5080 what? Nothing like anything. Ffs.
No. We should be welcoming to *all immigrants,* not just the human kind. *Diversity is our strength.* (sarcastic)
@@eccremocarpusscaber5159 Don't whine. All kinds of plants, animals besides people from other countries brought here decimating plant animal humans with disease, parasites and other animals competing for food with already indigenous animals here. Take a look at what had happened to the Bison let alone what was done to indigenous people here. Heard of Trail if Tears. No need to the answer that's a rhetorical question and you probably don't have the answer.
My neighbors have several American chestnuts that were given to them as saplings 40 years ago from the American chestnut association. They are still doing great and we plant the chestnuts from them all over the forest every year. The germination rate of the chestnuts is amazing. They are very strong trees if they are able to beat the blight. We plant them every year hoping our grandkids will have them all over the place.
I love you ❤
We need more people like you.
I’d love to get a few. I plan on planting as many as I can on 100 acres. I’m looking at buying in the central part of OK not a lot of trees to infect them and just enough rain.🤞
Thank you for doing this work
Wow god bless you for doing that
Here in Japan we crush chestnuts and cook them with our rice to create a very sweet mix, and to know that it was our trees that gave such a horrid blight to a national tree shocked and saddened me. But knowing that they’re making a comeback makes me hopeful, I hope these trees and the traditions around them return full force one day!
Your english is phenomenal.
@@thecaptainplus thank you! ヽ(´▽｀)/
Your words made me smile. Such compassion! Greetings from Germany.
I wouldn't feel so sad that it was your country's trees, it was an american who started the trade.
@@TheMistressMisery but the traders should’ve realized that there were something wrong with those trees, security should have been tighter especially since a wrong move could effect the local environment incredibly. Case and point: this video
I had no idea that the chestnut was that rare. My neighbors have an American chestnut tree so I'm going to start planting them every year.
This was one of the greatest American tragedies. I wish these folks the best of luck.
One of the best building woods in history and 80 bushels of potatoes per tree.
America is the greatest american tragedy
@@vid2ification underrated
Ron Casur said he is the chair for the Canadian Chestnut Council.
Canada.
We had an old chestnut tree on my dad’s land in southeastern Alabama. I had no idea just how rare they were. Just as sad was the blight that killed most of the wild red mulberry trees in my area of North America. Mulberries are like blackberries but sweeter.
I've had some of those! Had a friend in Elberta that brought some to work!
Dingleberries are like mulberries but sweeter
@@whitemailprivilege2830 The More You Know 🌈 ⭐️ lol
My neighborhood has tons of them! :D Do you know how to avoid the berry bugs though?
im starting to think were they killed on purpose ? blight was purposely introduced so everyone wouldn't have all this natural healthy FREE food. i too remember as a kid mulberries. and how there was fruit trees here or there in peoples front and back yards. cherry trees pear peach crab apples and grapes.
In Portugal we do roast chestnuts, starting at around September you can find stands roasting them right there and then for you to purchase!
Germany here, you can get freshly roasted chestnuts all winter. Not specifically a christmas tradition at all, and one of the few things that wasn't outlawed this year. But i personally am not terribly fond of them. I'd love some spiced winter wine though.
I believe the sweet European chestnut tree is different from the American one.
Also in the UK, you can even hire a chestnut roasting oven barrow for functions.
Italy here, in the small town where I live, we have an entire village festival surrounding roasted chestnuts in october :D
@@SianaGearz It's the same in Switzerland. (I don't know if Swiss Glühwein is the same as your spiced wine, but whatever it is it's fantastic.)
@@SianaGearz Here in Sweden the spice wine is called "Glögg", what's it called in Germany?
That blight was really something. Impressive! American chestnut is such a highly valued wood. It makes absolutely gorgeous floors, but I now far beyond the budget of any normal family.
In Spain, we can still eat chestnuts roasted in barrels on the streets during the winter time. Absolutely lovely when your fingers feel cold.
One of my oldest memories is an older cousin roasting chestnuts on an old woodstove. 1955
"It is St. Martin's Day,
We'll eat chestnuts, we'll taste the wine."
Here in Portugal street vendors sell roast chestnuts in the streets in the Autumn. The chestnuts are roasted on charcoal fire and it releases a mouthwatering scent. It is a tradition to eat chestnuts on the 11th of November to mark the beginning of the cold and rainy season.
Love this ❤️
Saudades de Portugal. Maiores saudades dos castanhos na rua! Ai! Que lembrança!
On a normal year the Christmas markets have chestnut sellers, but not this year. No Christmas markets.
Living in the Açores, I have 2 trees, but it is a fight with the rats and mice on who gets them first. Nothing better than roasting them and then using a coffee grinder to make a course flour. I then use it for the crust (like graham crackers) for a pumpkin pie. There is a great chestnut roaster made in mainland Portugal made of a black ceramic.
Wow Nuno, we’ve already started our cold and wet season 6 weeks before 11th Nov. 😜
Never thought of myself as a horticulturalist, but this past fall I planted about 40 chestnuts in a small nursery at my farm in Pennsylvania. My father has a Chinese chestnut, and his neighbor has an American chestnut right next to it. So after getting fruit from both, I decided to start planting these guys in hopes of maybe one day having a heavy harvest of fruit I can enjoy. Don't know if ill live long enough to see it, but I'm going to try.
How is It growing chestnuts?
I'm in 10b on the west coast
What if there was a food forest? Where there were intermediary topiary levels
We get a marine layer when the wind is strong
How would they grow in pots?
@@VincentGonzalezVeg I don't think they'd grow in pots at all, or at least not much beyond germination. I don't know about the rest of what you asked, other than they never grew there originally. They may, but I couldn't tell you if they could. I literally stuck mine in the ground 5 months ago after I used the tiller to break up the ground first.
Are these the same chestnut trees that have the short, spiky, thorns on the casings? The ones shown in the video look different. Also, what are horse chestnuts? I live in Minnestoa.
@@jon9536 yes to the short green thorns... dunno about the rest.
@@VincentGonzalezVeg Since you are in 10b you should grow some macadamia nut trees. I am in USDA zone 10a, Western Sunset zone 23 about 5 miles from the coast. Macadamias thrive here. Vista, California.
I never thought I'd be so invested in the story of a tree.
Well, thats because it is told by the head of canadian chestnut councill
Same, I’ve become obsessed with the native chestnut species of North America. If you like this story look up the ozark chinquapin. It’s a sibling species to the American chestnut that was similarly wiped out. The main difference being that as far as we know the ozark chinquapin tops out around 80ft. They’ve found about 45 resistant trees in the wild and crossed them and have produced blight resistant trees. If the American chestnut doesn’t make it, at least we can bring back its brethren.
My 1920s home was framed out with chestnut. It was in a blue collar neighborhood so it wasn't a fancy home, just a standard old four-square. But framed in hardwood because why not, it was everywhere. And I can say this: 100 year old chestnut joists are damned hard if you have to drive a nail into them!
Living in Europe and haeving chestnut trees all around in the forests, this realy made me cry. Cant imagine not haeving them around anymore.
Where do you live? Here in southern Germany, I have never encountered a wild chestnut (I'm out in the forests around my home almost every day, with open eyes. Tons of beech, oak, pine, maple, some yew, birch, spruce, fir, hazel, robinia, ash, linden. Not a single chestnut ever).
@@bladdnun3016 Slovenia. Es gibt noch jede Menge davon. Ist die Kastanie etwa auch in Deutchland von Aussterben bedroht?:(
@@drekpaprika I so see many ill chestnuts, but there are still a lot of them.
@@bladdnun3016 Italy is full of chestnut trees
Y’all are blessed the blight hasn’t show up.
A hole in my heart I did not know existed has been shown to me, and I mourn. I pray for their return.
Plant a tree. And adopt some. Take care of them, give them a hug. They give everyday to all of us. What can we do for them?
also the American Elm
That was...oddly poetic. Bravo!
@@maxlee6676 And now the Ash Tree
I’m English and I always used to go the woods/forest to pick chestnuts in autumn every year (like september-october, whenever the chestnuts start falling and it’s in season) with my grandad. We live right by sherwood forest and sherwood pines - where the legend of Robin Hood comes from, and that is the woods/forest we went in every year to pick them.
I remember when I was a little kid , about 5 or 6, 60 years ago, walking down the streets in New York City with my Grandfather. Vendors on the sidewalks would sell roasted chestnuts and they smelled so good. My Grandfather would always buy a bag . They were so good. Brings tears to my eyes.
They still do
I am 66 and have similar memories of smelling roasting chestnuts from street vendors on family trips to New York when I was a kid. I like the smell but wasn't particularly impressed when I tried eating the chestnuts. The street-vendor's giant pretzels were better!
What’s cool is that my museum has chestnuts around Christmas time and they are good I’m 13
They used to sell them from little roasting ovens outside Harrods in London 40 years ago too,they were lovely!
In the 80s and 90s too.
Remember, whenever you feel you just cant make a difference in the world. Know, you too can fuck everything up, for everyone while having the best of intentions.
As they say "The road to hell is paved with good intentions".
@@anthonyadverse4449 HILARIOUS !!!
Which has be done do frequently by Americand
People like to duck things up with bad intentions, mostly.
Hey 👋 its not like Bat 🦇 🥣 soup of covid 19. 😳
In Germany we still do. We also go to the woods and collect them ourselves and prepare them at home. You can also purchase them on Christmas Markets or fresh markets. Since I live in the US I really miss chestnuts 😞
They are called Maronen in germany
They are seasonal, my local deli orders them from Italy.
@@peterlustig6888 richtig 😇
Whole Foods and specialty grocery stores carries them. I can't have Christmas without roasted chestnuts. And I have this cool little gadget that X's a cut!
@@gennaterra are you serious!? I will have to check them out when it’s that time again. Thank you!
I work at Whole Foods and we sell Chestnuts from mid November to late January & people buy them weekly and roast these nuts. Their stories are very interesting regarding the roasting & consumption of chestnuts.
Cool beans! Thank you, I'm going to check that out.
The Virginia forestry service is about 8 years out from reintroducing a blight resistant American Chestnut back into the wild. ❤️
I cant wait I want to help replant in kentucky!
Hopefully currents are on their way too!
@@search4greatness I vividly remember the giant, ghostly gray, dead trees in Kentucky. They were rot resistant, and stood for many years before falling down. We couldn't even use them for firewood, they were too big and the wood was too hard to chop down.
@@SeanWinters Currant?
@@Chris-xo2rq Sure, however it's spelled.
In Paris, chestnuts are roasted and sold everywhere you go during the Fall and Winter.
Il y a des châtaigniers partout en Corse, là où j’habitais pendant 2 ans.
In Italy as well! I love them
Same here in Germany. They are everywhere as soon as Christmas season starts.
Yeah they kinda suck. Worst thing I ate in Paris
NYC as well
I am lucky enough to have a very strong, healthy chestnut tree in my back yard. And we do roast them. So very good
Almost certain that it is a Chinese Chestnut, just like the one in my mother’s backyard. They are immune to what killed the American variety. They also hurt, when you ride into a low hanging limb while cutting the grass on a rider mower :-) .
Its most likely a Asian one
Its comforting knowing there are people out there that care enough to make a difference. Thank you!
I now feel robbed of inheriting a life of quality chesnut wood over particle board. I don't think I've ever eaten one. I hope it survives!
Well yes, but there are also people who are why the trees are nearly extinct. The whole reason for the blight was the guy who imported the Japanese chestnut trees.
I've had roast chestnuts, roasted on our fireplace. They were disgusting.
@@CassThompson-p4i Maybe they went bad? They're pretty popular in the Middle East, delicious when fresh, and utterly horrible when off, even though the only visible difference is that they're a little shriveled/dry
As a forester the odds are looking good!
This also means big things for other tree species in a similar spot or about to be, like American elm and various red oak species. American elms are all but gone due to a fungal disease and red oak species are being decimated by oak wilt. If we can create a pretty complete genome of these species find the gene that would help their resistance we can save our native forests.
It’s important to note, the loss of chestnuts put a lot more weight on oak trees to feed wildlife. They’re one of our last large mast producing species that even comes close to the chestnuts. Without oaks our forests would crumble.
our generation was robbed of everything great, our greatest sin was being born too late.
There's a chestnut blight in Europe too, it's a bug name _cynips_ which started in Italy and Corsica and is moving Westwards but hasn't affected all of France yet. Chestnut wood is resistant to rot so it"s used for fence posts and other applications where it's in contact with humidity.
My parents used tot drive out picking chestnuts
They went chestnutting.
Mr. Casier was my grade 10 science teacher (I am now 52) and the best teacher I had. This man is so brilliant!
Holy crap, this was so much more emotional than I expected.
We do. Well at least in Europe. We actually have a tree in our garden. Seriously, figure out the blight thing & plant them again in North America. They’re wonderful.
I hope the Chestnut makes a comeback. Best of luck to all who are involved in bringing it back.
OK, this is really weird. I have never eat not seen a chestnut in my life, that is until about 3 hours ago. That's when my roommate, on a whim, brought home five bags of them (long story why). We both joked about roasting them over an open fire but neither of us really had a clue as to how do it. My plan was to go to the University of UA-cam to find out how, but I never got around to it (I was sidetracked watching The Mandalorian). When I finished watching that video, I decided to see what's on YT. To my surprise, in my feed was this video, which was fascinating to watch. So is this serendipity, or is YT listening in on my conversations?
Yes.
Read Google T.O.S.
It's coincidence. I don't think anyone has ever proven that audio is recorded and analyzed and used for recommendations. Not even ads.
There's been some "attempts", but they didn't test properly.
Are you kidding? Of course they read your texts, and listen in when ye think your phone is off, much as when you are actually talking on the phone. Now U know!
@@knutbjornlarsen4435 ahh yes of course 🧐
Lesson: do not introduce a tree from another continent w/o proper research and controlling!!!
or, anything from China.
Wot? fReE mArKeT is the answer to everything!...
Dead Elms, Ashes, Chestnut, Buckeye trees of America don't vote or make campaign contributions.
The Maples, Dogwoods, Oaks are doing poorly too.
@@loki2240 Exactly. Which is why we keep transfusing a few trillion dollars a year into the big banks so the free market stays free.
Otherwise they would be held hostage and you wouldn't want that on your conscience would you?
Yes. Ethics in the world of high finance.
So many invasive plants as well like kudzu.
My gf roasted a bunch of chestnuts about two months ago. We have a few American chestnuts around plus the chinese chestnut trees along a bike trail. She gathered up 2 grocery bags of them and just roasted them in a pot over the fire. She absolutely annihilated them, they were gone within 3 days. Smell like chicken. We're right about in the middle of Chestnut habitat in West Virginia. You can still find small patches of them growing, usually isolated by farmland, or some found in the middle of otherwise plowed grazing land that seemed to be protected by the isolation.
IO am sure my mother in law found the ones she planted in virginia, Very likely by a tree that was resistant. Shes always had a few around her house. That said they aren't big at all. However, she does get nuts from them.
I'm fortunate to have enjoyed roasted chestnuts. I'd like them to regain importance in the USA and Canada.
Never lost importance here Canada, least not where I’m from
@@NothinbutRye I just checked for some of our Harrison's Chestnuts (California) and found, "Sorry, we don't have chestnuts for sale in 2020." Maybe I can get some shipped from Canada . . .
@@nemo227 I dunno about species there, but here in Armenia we have chestnuts and I like to eat them raw, they are crunchy and delicious, roasting them makes it too soft for my taste.
@@tertigvah Crunchy! That's the way nuts are supposed to be, crunchy. Otherwise, we have peanut butter, sunflower nut butter, cashew butter . . . Which are all good on toast, plain bread, or crackers. I'm going to check in some stores here in California and see if we have any chestnuts imported from Armenia. I know that there are immigrants from Armenia.
@@nemo227 I was just saying try them raw, they have better taste and texture imho.
My Mom did this every Christmas Eve. It was part of our Italian Tradition.I remember the big cast iron skillet she would use. I grew up in the 50's and Christmas was a big deal in our family. The tree, the music, special foods we pretty much only had during the Holiday. All the Holiday cookies my Mom would make. We'd play games during the night then opened gifts at Midnight. When I was a tot, my folks never put the tree up until Christmas Eve after my sister and I went to bed. In the morning, there would be the decorated tree with all the presents underneath. We always thought Santa had come while we were sleeping and did it all. I was so lucky to have the parents I did. To go through all that trouble just because we believed there was a Santa. We also went to Midnight Mass when I was older. That was a tradition too ! I sure love and miss my folks.🎄🎅👼🦌🎁
The news of chestnut trees returning makes me so happy words are not enough! Back in the 1950s my father had one replanted in our yard. It was about twenty feet high at the time. As a child then my family would pick up the nuts and roast them. Such good times. Then it became infected and died. Someday it would be nice to plant one in my lifetime so my children and grandchildren could see for themselves how marvelous they are !
I never knew what those spikey balls were but I may have come across an american Chestnut tree almost 15 years ago. that's insane. I also didn't know anything about chestnuts or the near complete extinction of the American Chestnut tree.
Here in Portugal, that's a must.... Those chestnuts (we call them ´´castanhas´´ around here) were once used instead of the now
famous and well known ´´potatoes´´ before we even heard of potatoes, and I can see that I am not the only Portuguese commenting
here...ahahah, it seems that chestnuts bring us all together here. I am glad that you are taking care of them again as they are a treat
and the trees are awesome. We have one in the North of Portugal that experts say, is around 1300 to 1600 years old and it is beautiful.
If that's true, it is even older than our country that has only around 900 years......It's trunk has 13 m in perimeter.
The European Chestnut is also affected by the blight, but for various reasons have not been decimated as have the North American variety
i thought castanhas were testiculares
It‘s called "Castanheiro de Guilhafonso" 😉
Interesting. In German both the tree and the nuts are called Kastanien. While the final edible product is often sold under the term "Maronen".
Weird how nobody ever thought to make any record of that 1600 year old tree anywhere, huh? I'm sure they just forgot though and it totally exists.
As a carpenter and someone who always wondered what that song was about, I wish these people with such dedication success in restoring the American Chestnut!
Me too. I had several chestnut pieces of furniture in the past but could never get the lumber to make additional pieces
Perhaps, one day you can build a "chest" from some of the wood, and yes, this tree type is where the name comes from.
ua-cam.com/video/PIAxrnkity0/v-deo.html
In Croatia, it is winter custom eating chestnuts from the open fire.
...and the best is the Traditional Croatian Chestnut Variety ‘Lovran Marron’.
In portugal too
Yep hopefully the blight doesn't come for your guys trees too!
We do it too in France
It's pretty widespread in Europe. Belgium, France and Germany hold christmas markets where that thing is a standard, along with hot cocoa or hot spiced wine. Chestnut trees are so widespread that most kids go to collect them when the spiky shells start falling off.
Thank you to those who care and are working on this! Maybe one day future generations will be abl e to have chestnuts ❤
we have loads in the UK?
@@BC-yl3qb Are you not sure?
In China they have them on streetcorners all over the place. They use little pebbles to roast them
@@BC-yl3qbwe have none in America, our native chestnuts are gone. Most Americans have never seen or even heard about this species, to bring it back to our forests would be a honor.
You smell roasting chestnuts every fall and winter in Japan, it’s something everyone looks forward to.
(not trying to offend) it was the Japanese chestnuts that killed our American ones with a fungal infection they have so idc about your trees. xD
@@terrariaHERO1 blame the american who decided to import it.
Yeah how dare they enjoy something that naturally grows were they live?Shame on them right? Assholes.
Not everyone enjoys the smell. To me, it's overwhelming and causes me to gag.
@@terrariaHERO1 The video said it was infected ones from China. Hoping we get ours back growing and healthy soon. Trying to imagine how horrible the importer felt once he realized he had brought over sick trees
It is perfectly rational and reasonable to cry when finding a new American chestnut tree!
They most likely will still die though from the blight :(
@@MsBhappy How long do the blight spores survive?
@@gotsteem Not very long. The problem is the chestnut just dies back to the stump and then sends up new infected shoots to keep sending out spores for years if not decades. A lot of times when people find these "survivor" American Chestnuts they're these infected trees that keep dying back and sprouting again from the old roots. Also oak trees, and some other trees IIRC, as well as the oriental chestnuts can be infected and survive so there are plenty of reservoirs of the disease.
@@KenS1267 That is a shame..
@@KenS1267 Scientists are breeding genetically resistant trees at the New York State Environmental College of Forestry and Biology. *Thanks to "THOSE LIBERALS" who fund education* we may have a solution geneticliteracyproject.org/2020/06/23/biotechnology-forestry-revival-projects-now-include-elms-along-with-american-chestnuts/
This is scary and sad... Makes me appreciate even more, that I could collect a few kilograms last fall on a street in my hometown here in germany.
The European chestnut is different from the American one.
That song has such a melancholy undertone… Beneath the cheerfulness of the season is a quiet, reflective, feeling. The sadness of winter is part of what gives Christmas its beauty.
i remember one in my town in the early 70's that people would till gather the chestnuts from...
Was it an American Chestnut? I've seen Chinese Chestnut Trees, but never an American Chestnut.
That’s such a sad and unfortunate loss, one I didn’t even know about. Thank you so very much for making this documentary, it almost hurts to just think of this
I love when nature proves more resilient than our negligent or willful mistakes. But near-misses should be avoided! I'm not a "tree-hugger," but every human should be an environmentalist, to some degree.
Great comment
Yup. We all need oxygen.
You don't have to hug a tree, a high five will do.
@@dingfeldersmurfalot4560 technically speaking trees dont provide most of that. Most of our oxygen comes from the phytoplankton in our oceans.
In an interconnected world it was bound to happen at some point.
We can buy them in Japan and Korea, especially in the winter season ^^ Hope they can grow again in NA so that people can enjoy them there too ~
As an European I can't imagine autumn or christmas time without chestnuts. They are like a sacred family tradition
My parents and older sister LOVED roasted chestnuts. Me and my younger sister think they're disgusting. Our family tradition is arguing over how disgusting they are. Three against two, it's a rough go.
Where in Europe? We swedes don't have that tradition (although we have the trees).
@@herrbonk3635 Bavaria and Tyrol
The irony is in America, we sing about them every Christmas but most of us have never even tasted one or seen one 😂
On wintertime visits to New York City with my family when I was a kid I always liked the smell of roasting chestnuts in the air, but when I tried eating the nuts I wasn't impressed.
In Turkey we call them "Kestane" like old latin pronounciation and we still roasting them in the winter time. There are deserts made out of chestnuts . Such delicacy...
That's interesting, in Ukrainian the word "Kashtan" means acorn.
In Portuguese we say ´´castanha´´. Very much like ´´Kestane´´ and the Ukrainian ´´Kashtan´´....as the ´´c´´ reads like a ´´K´´.
Greetings to everyone. Nice that this little treat puts us talking to each other.......
'Kastanie' here in Germany. Love them, too.
Yes, actually chestnut is short form of Chesten nut. In Bulgaria we call it Kesten.
In Deutsch : Kastanien bzw. Esskastanien
Here in Europe it's very much still a thing. I love love love roasted chestnuts. Reminds me of when I was little and my grandma would roast them on a wood burning cook stove and the warm cozy smell would spread throughout the whole house
Yeah video kind of surprised me, people acting like it doesnt exist anymore? Just an American thing then.
My Italian family still gets chestnuts every Christmas, I didn’t know that wasn’t a normal thing. And we a live in America
Different chestnut
I’ve had them in Germany, Switzerland, and even Portugal.
Yeah we roast them on the open fire in Britain all the time, line them up on the grate. I hate the taste of them though so I wouldn't lament the end of the tradition 😂
Here in Jersey, the original Channel Islands Jersey, we have lots of Chestnut trees , many available to the public. Therefore we are doubly lucky as ours are free to eat. One of my favourites at this time of year. Roast Chestnuts in a tea towel on your lap and a Christmas film , heavenly.
I remember gathering chestnuts in the woods when I was a child. It's so interesting to watch this because I haven't seen them since on the ground.
They even got someone who sounds like the Vox lady for their Vox-style explainer video.
Maybe it is the otherway around?
Wait I didn't even realize this wasn't Vox
Shit I thought this was Vox
The "american reporter voice" is taught in universities all around the continent.
Make more of them I say. Will give plenty of time to come up with a new voice!
I spent ages 1-5 and 12-18 in Germany. Especially in the High school years we always had roasted chestnuts in the Fall whether in Germany or visiting England. I just assumed it was available everywhere.
One of the many “culture shocks” I encountered when we returned stateside was there was no one roasting chestnuts in the U.S.
I’m from Spain but live in the US, and I’ve been roasting or boiling chestnuts with anise 😋 every fall since I came. They’re a bit pricy but available in every supermarket of my area.
Americans wish every house could be roasting chestnuts. The blight absolutely devastated our chestnut forests, so imported chestnuts are pricey. It can still be done, but the fact that it isn't readily available has deeply harmed the tradition.
You can get them in Sydney, Australia but I've no idea if they are locally grown or imported. I've never heard of chestnut trees growing in the wild here.
Old World chestnut trees aren't killed by it. You have the Old World variety.
In the north of Spain we relate Chestnuts more with October/November rather than Christmas/December, all the Celtic-rooted communities (Asturias & Galicia) celebrate Amagüestu (Asturian) and Magosto (Galician) a havest feast that mostly features chestnuts (And in Asturias, our particular kind of Cider)
I live near a university campus that planted a couple American Chestnuts, and it's such a joy to watch them growing and producing more and more each year! I had no idea there'd been such a massive wipe out, and now I want to save nuts from next years crop to plant in my friends yards!
Many years ago a hybrid was created from an ancient surviving American chestnut tree and a Chinese chestnut tree; known as the "Dunstan Chestnut" this hybrid has all the characteristics of the American chestnut and is completely blight resistant.
There are a number of Dunstan Chestnut tree farms today which sell tons of nuts every year. And I'm thrilled that several years ago I planted a full acre of Dunstan Chestnut trees for future generations to enjoy. This Fall I added a number of Hazelnut trees to the plot as well. I'm hoping to add some blight resistant chinquapins to the future forest too. What fun!
Those might be the ones I buy already cooked, deshelled and packaged in the supermarket.
Thank you for your hard work. I wish I could do the same but I don’t know if anyone nearby to work with
We found a fruit farmer in western Pennsylvania that has saved a half dozen and we buy some every year. They are delicious !
I remember eating roasted chestnuts 🌰 in Rome, Italy. Standing on a street corner I purchased roasted chestnuts from a street vendor. They are so delicious. Now I'm craving roasted 🌰 chestnuts nuts!
In the UK we do. Supermarkets sell a lot of chestnuts. Many European countries eat chestnuts with sellers standing in the winter streets selling hot chestnuts. Germany, Portugal and Spain all sell chestnuts at this time of year.
I bought some last year in London. I had never seen them roasted before.
... Balkans as well.
Here in Czech republic they sell them roasted at christmas markets too.
@Mark OnTheBlueRidge From the UK and i like to stuff invasive Grey American Squirrel Sadle with Chestnuts and Sultanas, wrap in smokey bacon and roast in Lard.
Save our Red Squirrels, eat Grey.
I had them in Turkey. They were great! I have never seen them here in the U.S. bummer!
I grew up in Western New York and remember both the elm and chestnut trees dying. My parents told me that the magnificent elm trees in our front yard we’re doomed. We didn’t have a chestnut tree in our yard but I remember picking up chestnuts when I walked to school. My grandmother roasted them every fall. When I was 12 years old my family moved away to an area without chestnut trees. This video brought back many memories.😢
Most Elms were gone when I was born in the 80s, we had a few spindly elms but they would die young. It is sad to see Beaches diseased and Ashes that are over one hundred years old that we are loosing in the last 3 years.
Buffalo here as well… born in 86 but remember my grandparents talking about them. The city streets look horrible now without trees.
Here in CT we got invaded the past few years with the ash borer, I had 4 ash trees all die within 2 years (two very large, 100'+, & expensive to take down), and while driving around that year I was noticing dead ash trees by the dozens around my neighborhood. It's a shame because they tend to be good shade trees. I did get probably 4-5 cords of firewood though
Now it’s happening with oak trees too.
I’m a huge fan of the genetic modification research done with the chestnut because it brings so much hope to us in the natural resources that the same could be done to elm, oak, and beech- maybe even the ash trees too!
We introduced diseases are forests were never exposed to, we’re losing our native trees and in turn our wildlife.
Depends on the country... here in Germany/Europe we do that every winter season. Can't find a christmas market etc. without them.
Publix has them during November and December, but they're from Italy and cost $7.99 a pound.
Pecans local ones, are $14 per pound!
I’ll stick with collecting my own
This is wonderful, thank you! As a furniture designer/builder and historian (to a point) I've admired vintage furniture made from Chestnut and have been aware of the Chestnut blight for a very long time, I've always dreamt of a source so I could make beautiful pieces from Chestnut. As a kid in New Jersey, back in the 70's, there were still Chestnut's around so I recognize the spiky nut hulls - I'm hoping blight resistant saplings will become available because when they are I'll be on a mission to plant them everywhere :)
For my late father and many people in North Italy during the war chestnuts were sometimes the only available food that could be had for free as it was a matter of collecting them from the forest floor. They ate them roasted fresh but also dried them up to be ground into flour to be consumed at a later date. A little Spaniard who worked as a shoemaker in my hometown told me once that he got tired of eating chestnuts during the civil war years and thereafter saying that his mother added chestnuts to almost every dish while they were in season and afterwards as flour. For thousands of years chestnuts were a staple food in the Northern hemisphere but unfortunately most historians overlook that fact.
Thank you for trying to bring these American trees back.
This is why we can’t have foreign plants here.
Here in the UK, chestnuts are an essential part of a side dish served with Christmas dinner.
For convenience, take a pack of vacuum sealed chestnuts, cut them in half (or boil and peel your own) and set aside.
Cut a little good smoked bacon into strips and fry until crispy - don't remove the fat.
Trim and cut in half enough Brussels sprouts to have a 3 or 4:1 ratio to your chestnuts and add to boiling salted water. Boil the sprouts for 5 minutes (if you boil for more than 7 minutes, they will go mushy and bitter) and drain.
Combine the chestnuts and sprouts with the bacon and fry for a minute or so to warm the chestnuts through, take off the heat and sir through a teaspoon of honey and serve.
Canadians are permitted to replace the honey with maple syrup.
Are they ? Perhaps in your household. I've never heard of it or known anyone who has or regards them as "essential"
The only thing they were used for was playing conkers at school...and no one does that anymore either. Sadly.
@@kevinnimmo645 Sweet chestnuts and horse chestnuts (conkers) are completely different things. The fact that you don't know the difference speaks volumes.
I love chestnuts. Haven't had them in years but since reading this I yearn for them now.
I bought some chestnuts at the store just the other day and they were the nicest-looking chestnuts I've seen in years: big, healthy, unblemished chestnuts. I can't wait to see how they taste on Thanksgiving!
How did they taste? Did you like the chestnuts?
in korea, we do that quite commonly, but nothing to do with christmas. it's just winter snack
I remember eating these while living in Italy - street vendors would sell cones of them. Delicious/
We have a lot of chestnut trees in our mountains
I -know- knew where there -is- was a surviving tree in Nova Scotia, though I haven't been to it in over 40 years, but it was alone, deep in the forest.
Damn, I was just telling someone the other day about the black tree fungus that has been spreading. This piece is really hard to accept as well. Pennsylvania born and raised. Didn’t even think about how many fewer chestnuts there are today until seeing this video suggested. Friends and I used to tag each other with chestnuts. Getting zinged was enough to make you tear up, that’s for sure
I too am in PA.. our land is surrounded by National Forest. There is a fungus killed most trees in our neighborhood and all through the forests here. Very concerning
Same. Just took it for granted.
the damn spotted lantern flies killed the trees by spreading the fungus :(
Yeah, I've noticed over the past 5-10 years, so many trees seem dead or dying with most of the bark stripped or white, in batches all around. I also live at basically ground zero for the Spotted Lanternfly outbreak. They've been greatly reduced compared to a few years ago, but still see them.
very sweet story of that lady finding a chestnut tree in the woods. how awesome.
I've heard about this through woodworking and it's just absolutely devastating. I hope we can replant and rebuild the American Chestnut in a scientific way that holds sustainability for the future
We have a formidable tree actually in our garden here in The Netherlands.
I never knew it is such a problem. The idea of importing from Japan seemed great but wow what a burden to be the one to have made that error.
And to see this woman cry when she discovered a wild tree... it matters indeed! Glad people give so much effort to restoring.
My great grandmother has a huge chestnut in her side yard. We love that tree, it's had a swing under it as long as everyone can remember...
Because of the blight. Saved you 9 minutes
I grew up in West Virginia and was lucky to have a huge chestnut tree in our backyard. I had so much fun opening them and eating them as a child.
We just moved into an older home, we hope to restore, and there is a chestnut tree in our yard! It even had chestnuts this year! We save a bucket full for Christmas. We're located in North MS very close to Memphis, TN! The tree is very large and tall, shows no signs of the blight at all, Praise God! His name is Chester. We'll be taking great care of Chester as long as we're here.
We are moving to Georgia this month and if we find any chestnut trees I'm planning to lay hands on it and pray for it's protection and for it to be healed of any disease it might have, in Jesus name! I never tried fresh roasted chestnuts but enjoyed packaged ones.. I imagine roasted is even more delightful 😆
Ive planted several of the ‘Dunstan’ hybrids. I hope they grow in Louisiana.
Mine appears to be struggling, in upstage NY. Adding insult to injury, the deer want to eat the leaves every year.
I eat tons of roasted chesnuts each winter. I'm from Mexico, and even though they are quite expensive my family has consumed them for generations. My great-grandparents used to buy them for my grandparents and my grandparents used to get them for our parents and now we, the younger generation, also buy them and roast them to eat together as a family. They are a bit hard to get but we can always find a place that sells them each year. I think the ones we buy are imported from Europe, but I don't know why they only import them during the winter when you can eat them year-round over there.
In Italy we eat chestnuts whole autumn. If you come here during chestnut season, you’ll find everyone preparing and selling them in every plaza
I live in Rochester NY, and one of our community gardens features chestnut trees. I was able to go chestnutting with my Cub across the street from where my Daddy grew up, walking distance from downtown Rochester! What an experience to have in the 20s!
Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas!
They still roast them on the street at Trevi Fountain in Rome.
They still roast/steam them all over Europe ;) and then some mash them and make vermicelles... yummy 🤤
Probably the sweet chestnuts native to Southern Europe. Different species but still sounds delicious
Yes, I didn't know that the US and Canada had a problem with them, I always assumed that they were as prevalent there as they are here, my grandmother for example would frequently put hot roasted chestnuts alongside meat when she cooks some and it is delicious and I hope everyone is able to test this
Always heard about “chestnuts roasting on an open fire “ in Christmas song, but never saw one. Went to Italy in the winter and bought roasted chestnuts from a street vendor. I was so pleased. 🎄
Hey, what do you do Ron?
Ron: I'm chair of the Chestnut Council
DO SOMETHING BRO>.