I couldn’t really garden this summer. Or rather I could if I was willing to wear a mask and gloves all the time. So now that my immune system and energy have bounced back partially I am in fall harvest season without a harvest. So my energy has gone to foraging.

I collected a LOT of black walnuts this fall. Some were stolen by squirrels but most were hulled and are on a drying rack waiting for me to attempt shelling them. I really like the flavor of black walnuts but the hulls are messy and the shells are wicked hard. So this is only the second time I harvested them. The hulls were donated to a friend who used them to eco dye.

Some family friends said they had american chestnuts which are essentially gone from the wild due to a horrible blight. Their trees get mid-sized before succumbing. And are cut back and then grow back from the roots. I collected some. My friends grow them to distribute to keep a population going. After removing the nasty hulls and then shelling many many tiny chestnuts I have 2 cups of precious chestnuts. I think I will make chestnut butter but I keep finding other recipes. Gnocchi is on the top of the list at the moment. Do you have a favorite chestnut recipe.

Some of our major tree species are under major threat in Maine due to insects and disease. I find it sad but interesting that what I now find exotic used to be about a quarter of the hardwood trees in the eastern US. My mom remembers her dad buying wormy chestnut lumber for his frames.