Autumn is the time for many fruits, vegetables, and berries. Autumn is the last season when we can get many vitamins before the winter season. Some of them give you an enormous amount of vitamins that can help you to cope with stress. So when you decide to gamble at the online casino NZ, do not forget about amazing chestnuts.
The homeland of the edible chestnut, known throughout Europe, is Asia Minor. But already in ancient times, it spread over very wide territories.
Chestnut fruits are especially popular in France, Italy, and Spain. The French even every year. And on the island of Corsica, there is a curious custom. The bride’s family, as proof of their solvency, must put 22 dishes of chestnuts on the wedding table.
The texture of chestnuts resembles potatoes: they are high in starch; baked, they crumble almost the same way. Chestnut is a good honey plant: chestnut honey is not candied for a very long time, it is brown, tart and slightly bitter. Moreover, not only chestnuts with edible fruits can be a honey plants, but also decorative types of chestnuts.
Different Types
Types of chestnut trees are divided into edible and inedible (even poisonous) fruits.
The classic chestnut fruit, known in European cuisine, is produced by the seed chestnut (Castanea sativa). It grows in the south of Europe, in Asia Minor, in Western Transcaucasia (Dagestan), Crimea, Moldova, and Ukraine. This species includes, in particular, the geographically protected Spanish chestnuts from Galicia (IGP Castaña de Galicia).
In terms of nutritional value and taste, the American chestnut (Castanea dentata) and the Japanese chestnut (Castanea crenata) successfully compete with the common chestnut.
All three named species have produced numerous valuable varieties. Hybrid varieties were also bred using the softest chestnut, also known as Chinese chestnut (Castanea mollissima) and undersized chestnut (Castanea pumila).
Different varieties of chestnuts differ from each other, for example, in the size of the fruit. So, chestnuts growing in Russia are small, like walnuts. While in Europe they can be the size of a good tangerine. Large chestnuts are highly valued in Europe and are not usually exported. You can meet them in southern France, Spain, and Italy. The most selective ones are in Sicily, just the good ones are in the north of the country. In Piedmont, in Lombardy, signs can be seen on the streets warning of the seasonal fall of chestnuts. During this very fall, passers-by, without embarrassment, pick up the crop, and lay it out, satisfied, in their cases and bags. Of course, you don’t have to pay three euros per kilo, like in a supermarket! In the north of Italy, wild chestnut forests, extremely rare for Europe, have been preserved, where in September-October whole companies go with baskets.
In Japan, chestnuts from Tamba, a local variety of crenate chestnuts, are highly valued. This chestnut grows in the northern regions of Osaka Prefecture and the surrounding areas of Hyogo and Kyoto prefectures. These chestnuts are larger and tastier than chestnuts in other areas, and the price is correspondingly higher. Harvested in autumn, fresh Tamba chestnuts are so sweet that there is no need to add sugar to them.
All edible types of chestnuts are good honey plants. Chestnuts with inedible fruits can also be honey plants.
