Column: looking for chestnuts

A radiant sun, clear blue skies, temperatures that remind you of summer. But it still smells like fall. We have a real Indian Summer this year. Ideal weather to be outside. We have therefore agreed with friends to go into the hills together for the first time in many years for a healthy day in the open air. On the hunt for what belongs to autumn: chestnuts.

Mushrooms and chestnuts

Autumn in Italy isn't just about changing trees, falling leaves and acorns on the ground. Autumn is also mushroom picking and chestnuts to eat afterwards. Now I'm personally a bit hesitant about the mushrooms; before you do it again you sink your teeth into the wrong one with all the consequences that entails. But even a city kid like me can tell a horse chestnut from a sweet chestnut: without a feather they are inedible! And if you do try to eat one, the bitter taste is enough to make you realize you've got the wrong one.

Now at the place where we are going you have to do your very best to go home with horse chestnuts. On the hilltop where we collect are mainly sweet chestnut trees. Hundreds. Which together drop a lot of chestnuts. So much so that that single horse chestnut is the proverbial needle in a haystack. And the advantage of that large amount of chestnuts is that there is enough for everyone who - armed with plastic bags - climbs the top.

The chestnut hunt

It is important to find the right tree. In other words, that tree under which freshly fallen chestnuts lie, so that the chance of having to share the chestnut with a chestnut resident is as small as possible. While we chat, sniff the healthy forest air and assess the chestnuts that we free from the husk with a stick for shine, any unwanted holes and firmness, the plastic bags fill up faster than expected.

When the sun goes down and the bags are filled, the question naturally arises as to where we will roast the harvest: by the lit campfires on the hill or at home in the frying pan while we warm up a bit ourselves. Whatever the answer, you end a pleasant day outside peeling and eating chestnuts.

An idyll… or not?

It sounds very idyllic when described like that. Collecting your own organic chestnuts together in the forest and then roasting them afterwards. But there are also less idyllic sides to such a day outside. The abdominal pain that you get from eating too many chestnuts without noticing, for example. Or the unexpected meeting with chestnut residents who, despite the strict selection, still crawl out of the plastic bag a day or so later on their way to know-a-much. Not pleasant.

And now this city kid suddenly remembers why the last chestnut hunt was so long ago. hmm. Maybe I can turn the date with those friends into a barbecue on another hilltop. I'm going to make a call.