Aw nuts.

Well, the results are in, and it's decisive. It's been a shit year for sweet chestnuts. I'd called it wrong last year, so tried to give this year the benefit of the doubt, but no, the nuts this year really have been poor. Of course, that may not be universal, but about our roams it was a case of lots of early droppers little more than sacks, followed by a weak crop of below average size nuts, and few and far between. Could just be a bad year? Maybe. It has been poor across the board, I can’t think of a wild food that's had a particularly good year, neither fruit, nut or fungi.

The Christmas nut.

 

Why is Sweet Chestnut (Castanea sativa) the Christmas nut? You always see them roasting in snowy scenes in Christmas films and seasonal adverts, they've become synonymous with the festival in the public's eyes. Although in my experience they ripen and fall long before Christmas, and I've found them difficult to store (of course that could be me). Anyhoos, a good number of the forests' sweet chestnut trees are well laden with small fruits. Last year I predicted a poor harvest at this point of the cycle, the fruits were small then too, and I was wrong, at worst the harvest was patchy. I'm fast coming to the conclusion that speculation on such matters is futile anyway, too many known and unknown variables, our natural plant lore is becoming redundant in our changing world.

Sweet as a nut

 

It used to thought (and it still could be so) that the non native Sweet Chestnut (Castanea sativa) arrived in Britain during the Roman Period AD43 - 410, although it appears that as yet there's no evidence of them before AD650. Whenever they arrived, they're a useful nut. Our route this morning took us through my favourite sweet chestnut wood, where the branches were festooned with open cases, and the floor beneath littered with nuts. You can tell when the Sweet Chestnut season is drawing to an end, as their spiky green cases, still on the branch, look like open face hugger eggs (think Alien film).  Although many of the nuts were again smallish or average, there were a respectable number of stonkers. I got to wondering if the sweet chestnut had an early drop, a bit like Apple trees have the 'June drop' when some fruits are discarded for the benefit of the remainder, hence the abundance of empty nut sacks a few weeks back. Shredded cases emptied by wildlife were present in huge numbers, the woodland critters have been enjoying a proper feed. I had to grab a load, well, it would've been rude not to. If you're looking to collect some I'd be quick.

Chestnuts

Recent winds have brought down a good number of Sweet Chestnuts, allowing an appraisal of the nuts so far. Well. Firstly, if you're after some be quick, a fair number have already been eaten, the evidence is all about. As for what's left, far too many are simply empty nut sacks for my liking, no kernel to speak of, or at all. The rest. A reasonable quantity of average sized nuts, with the occasional good sized one. At this point, I'm going to call an average chestnut year.

Sweet chestnut

The forests' Sweet Chestnut trees may be well decked in clusters of spiky casings, though they're not looking that big yet.

Chestnuts!

 

So, we passed through the stand of Sweet Chestnut (Castanea sativa) trees I mentioned yesterday, and good news, the available crop of chestnuts was far superior to the trees I'd been seeing. Yeah, you still have a lot of empty nut sacks and and loads of small Hazelnut sized nuts, though with a root about you also have a good amount fair sized nuts and a reasonable amount of corkers (not conkers, don't eat conkers they'll fuck you up); what was striking was the huge number of fallen cases and nuts already eaten by wildlife; all around the trees the ground has been churned by horses feasting on chestnuts, they really seem to like them. Why might these trees have good fruits though so many others don't; all I could come up with was the age of the trees, these trees are old, they were old when I first collected here in the 1980's. Maybe that's it? What I can say is, we passed many Chestnut trees on our 12.8 mile walk today and none displayed the quantity or quality of nuts these trees did.  And yes, I did return with a bag full for roasting; well, it would be rude not to.   

Nut sacks

Well, the season is upon us and the spiky green cases of the forest's Sweet Chestnut (Castanea sativa) trees have been falling for a couple of weeks now; sadly if those that have fallen (and a lot have already fallen) are anything to go by this year you wont be roasting chestnuts on an open fire unless you buys some. For the most part the examples I've seen lying about have been little more than empty nut sacks and small fruits, slim pickings for both man and beast.  I suppose this could just be the trees discarding the chaff, the weaker fruits and the best nuts are yet to come; though that sounds like wishful thinking. Tomorrow we'll be passing through a stand of mature Sweet Chestnut trees that I've gathered from for 40 years and are usually a solid bet; that should be a tell.   

Chestnuts roasting?

Chestnuts roasting on an open fire? I'm not so sure. Sweet Chestnuts (Castanea sativa) haven't amounted to much yet. I know we're only just approaching collecting season and there's remains time for them to develop; though they still look on the itty bitty side to me. Of course, I'm always happy to be proven wrong.

Aw nuts!

 

As I was saying regards pannage, the Sweet Chestnuts (Castanea sativa) this year have been rubbish. Traditionally, for me anyway, the fringes of Backley Enclosure have always been prime chestnut collecting woodland, and I don't remember it ever being so poor there. Yeah, there were  a handful of gooduns here and there, but no real corkers, and for the most part they've been little more than empty leathery sacks. Same everywhere we've roamed too. I hope it's an anomaly and not a sign of things to come... you do get good and bad years after all.

Re-growth

I've watched with interest as this part of Wilverley has changed. Initially the Sweet Chestnuts were removed, leaving the woodland open and exposed, soon after the Sweet Chestnut stumps sent up multiple rods and a blanketing coppice developed obscuring the woodland, now, some years on, the rods have reached for the skies, growing up tall and revealed the woodland once more. The forest is always changing. Most interesting though, isn't here where the hand of man has agency in change, but where man has withdrawn from 'managing' the landscape and nature is allowed to chart her own course.  Still, interesting to watch cycles in motion.

Going nuts

The forest is going nuts at the moment. It's been a really good year for nuts all round, and the moment now belongs to the Sweet Chestnut (Castanea sativa). Recent winds have dislodged the cracked open spiky cases, littering the woodland floor around the trees with hundreds of fair sized nuts and empty cases. That's a thing I've noticed this year, 2015 and 2016's nutting seasons saw the chestnuts unfairly divided between a portion of very good sized nuts (30%) though with the bulk of the nuts being of a poor size or near hollow (70%), whereas, this season the nuts appear to be predominantly (70%) a more uniform size, a reasonable and still useful size. This situation isn't restricted to one site either, it appears to be the same wherever I've walked in the forest of late. If you wanted some sweet chestnuts now is the time to get out there, you'd collect your fill in no time at all.

Patterned Bark

Beautifully patterned bark on a mature Sweet Chestnut tree. Way cool. 

Look at my nut sack!

Shame on you! It's not that sort of blog. No, the sack of nuts I was referring to, is this sack of Sweet Chestnuts. It's a mixed season, some trees good, some not so, even on individual trees there's quite a range in size. But the good sized ones are shop sized, though why people would buy an easily forage-able resource is beyond me. It was a seasonal tradition to go out Chestnut collecting when I was young. How disenfranchised we've become as a people from nature and her cycles and bounty. Anyway, I've postulated that the larger nuts are to be found around and just beyond the canopy's fringe. I reckon it's because they're big, when the case hits the ground they bounce out. It's not a 100% rule, but I'd say 70% of the good sized nuts I found fitted my hypothesis.  If you want some, get out there soon, the woodland folk are going through them at a pace, around some trees all there was to be found were gnawed shells.

Sweet Chestnut

The seriously spiky fruits of the Sweet Chestnut (Castanea sativa) are beginning to form in good quantities. I say 'seriously spiky fruits', although it's only the protective outer case that's prickly, the nut inside is, as it's name suggests, sweet and full of goodness.  The Sweet Chestnut is not a native of our land, although having been introduced by the Romans 2000 years ago it has now become naturalized and is commonly found throughout the forest; this may be as it produces a valuable, durable and versatile timber, which would have been much sought after.