Chestnuts
roasting on an open fire is definitively called the Christmas Song. The
music and lyrics were composed by Torme and Wells in 1946.
But did you know that the ‘chestnuts’ mentioned in this song no
longer exist?
The American Chestnut tree, Castanea dentate, once THE
dominant tree on the Eastern Seaboard in North America, was effectively
decimated by an Asian fungus.
The fungus arrived in New York City (the Bronx Zoo) in 1904, and
spread throughout the continent during the next 50 years.
Everyone has tried to roast chestnuts that are commonly sold during the
November and December months, and I think everyone has agreed that these
chestnuts, when properly roasted, absolutely SUCK!!
That’s because they’re Chinese Chestnuts, Castanea
mollissima, only slightly related to the chestnuts mentioned in The
Christmas Song.
American chestnuts were a main part of the diet of settlers and
people of the United States, and from all accounts they were quite tasty,
either raw or roasted on an open fire.
It is estimated that over half of the forests on the East Coast of
the USA were chestnut forests, and chestnut lumber was the #1 desired wood
for furniture, lumber, and all mast ships for over 300 years.
Even in Mid-Atlantic States today, if you drive down county roads in
Tennessee, Virginia, Kentucky, you can probably see old fences made of
chestnut wood, over 50 years old.
The wood lasts an extremely long time, doesn’t rot quickly, is
strong, straight, doesn’t warp and is still in use.
However, this wood source is all gone.
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Not only did people eat the chestnuts from this Eastern Chestnut tree, so
did deer, bears, raccoons,
chipmunks, and most all animals in the forest depend on this food
supply. The
woods were able to feed more animals, so now there is less wildlife in
Eastern Coast woodlands because chestnuts are gone.
It sounds like chestnuts were delicious.
Too bad our grandparents were the last generation to have had the
opportunity to try this food.
There are still lone chestnut trees to be found, but eventually all of these
trees succumb to this Asian fungus, and acquire a bulge in the trunk that
strangles the tree from that point up.
Some tree stumps, from trees hundreds of years old, still sprout
saplings and grow new trees, but in about 5 – 15 years time these saplings
acquire and die from this fungal disease.
Eventually the living Chestnut stumps will die and the Eastern
Chestnut will be extinct, unless Science finds a solution.
I just thought some of you might be interested in this almost-useless bit of
knowledge.
There are scientific programs that are tagging and trying to
cross-breed any trees that show any resistance to this fungus.
Links:
The American Chestnut Foundation
http://www.acf.org/index.php
http://www.elmpost.org/chestnut.htm
An
informative web page.
Maybe you’d be interested in trying to grow an American Chestnut
tree? You’d
be doing it for science and for our history.
And maybe for some tasty chestnuts at Christmas time. You can
order up to 15 chestnut seeds. Click here:
http://ipm.ppws.vt.edu/griffin/accf.html