10/11/09 AMERICAN CHESTNUTS ARE RIPENING

A CLUSTER OF CHESTNUT FRUITS
INDIVIDUAL CHESTNUT FRUIT
HUSKS SPLITTING OPEN
EMPTY HUSKS
NUTS
Sunday, 8:15 AM. 30 degrees, wind W, light. The sky is almost cloudless, the channel is wrinkled, and the barometer predicts partly cloudy skies. It is a pretty fall day, the color by no means full as yet.
The young American chestnut (Castanea dentata) tree on Tenth and Manypenny has produced a number of fruits. The husks are very spiny, and the remains of the female flower still adhere to it. The fruits are now falling from the trees, the husks splitting open into four divisions, with one to three nuts inside. As I have related previously, there is a large population of healthy American chestnut trees in the area. They are either resistant to, or due to their isolation have remained uninfected by, the pervasive chestnut blight which has made these native trees very rare. I intend to collect enough of them to grow them on in pots and eventually plant them around town. The kernels will need to be kept in the refrigerator during the winter to make them break dormancy. It would be fun to roast a few to see how they taste.