Saturday, September 15, 2007

Looking a gift horse in the mouth

I think I am usually very appreciative of gifts I am given but lately I find myself giving a hidden sigh when someone gives me a particular gift. We are in the chestnut season and I have to admit I'm not too thrilled when one of my students smilingly hands me a bag of chestnuts.

The autumn season is so beautiful around here and soon the days will be cool and crisp. Leaves change to all colors depending on how fast winter approaches. The rice fields will be harvested soon and occasionally I see little flocks of quails running through the forest. On tiring thing (to me) about this season, is the chestnuts. The chestnut trees are dropping big prickly balls of chestnuts now and in the forest you can hear the thunk-thunk when the wind blows. There are even such things as chestnut farmers and most of the people with any land at all around here have a couple of chestnut trees planted. That means that at this time of year there is an overabundance of chestnuts! I am getting them by the pounds! It seems like everyone is willing to give you a few bags of chestnuts and English kids' mothers hand me a bag every few days. It takes skill to look pleased at a heavy bag with a couple hundred nuts inside it when actually you are thinking about the three other bags just as filled that someone else has given you this week that you still haven't done anything with!

There are two things wrong with getting chestnuts. No, three. One, no one in my family has ever liked them. They don't have much taste and are naturally mealy but they are a very organic kind of food that is very nutritious. I have explained this to my family but no one wants to eat them. If I put them in the rice cooker with flavoring and rice, I get a nice pot of chestnut-rice which Tetsu will eat one dinner of, but he's not too thrilled with just boiled chestnuts or pureed chestnuts and chestnut-rice once a year is enough for him. Another problem with chestnuts is that they are murder to peel and make ready for eating. They have prickly outsides that stab your fingers and this shell can only be taken off with your feet in protective shoes. You step on them on one side of the chestnut and step on the other side with your other shoe and try to break them open enough to take out the three or four nuts that are inside. The nut's inner shell is almost impossible to get through without a very sharp kitchen knife and after removing the shells from about 20 nuts I have blisters on my thumbs and the fingers on my right hand are numb and my wrists are threatening tendinitis. It's not worth the work to get to the meat inside the nuts!

The last problem with chestnuts is that once you get past the shell, more often than not you find a worm. (Or worse, find you've cut it in half!) Sometimes you scream and drop the whole thing, though hopefully not the sharp kitchen knife in the process. Sometimes you throw out the whole nut, sometimes you cut the worm out. Someone suggested thinking of it as added protein and just cooking it and eating worm and all. Or another line of thinking is that if even the worm likes the chestnut it is guaranteed to be chemical free and delicious. I can't get myself to buy any of that jargon. So that's another reason for the skill it takes when receiving another bag of chestnuts. "Do I really want to go through another horror show experience tonight?" If not, then the bag just sits there for the worms to thrive on.

My husband, looking over my shoulder right now says I'm mostly going to get comments back today not about how nice the chestnuts look, but about how Tanya sure has dirty shoes! Sorry about that!

15 comments:

Quilt Pixie said...

the only time I get chestnuts here in Canada in in a mixed nut collection that is available at Christmas -- they are one of the easier nuts in that collection to crack and get to the nut, so are quite popular, though I must agree the flavour isn't the best in the nut family.... :-(

meggie said...

Roasted chestnuts were said to be a delicacy in England. We tried them in NZ, & didnt care much for them!LOL. Too floury, & bland.
Could you just sneak the bags away on your walks?. Leave them for someone else to find? LOL.

Kieny said...

I love to eat chestnuts but I can find them only occasionally in the stores here in Kaoshsiung. If you add some sweetener to the water when you cook them they will taste better. Chestnuts also remind me of my childhood in autumn in Holland when we would make all kinds of toys out of them. But those chestnuts were the kind that are not suitable for eating. And of course the wonderfull old chestnut trees with their may blossoms. Can't you give them to your neighbours or friends?

Lazy Gal Tonya said...

Time to re-gift!

I didn't notice your shoes until you pointed them out. the eye-catching thing for me is the gorgeous green spikiness of the young chesnuts on the tree. love that.

andsewitis Holly said...

Husbands are funny creatures coming at things from totally different angles :) You should see *my* shoes.

That's way too much work for chestnuts especially if noone likes them.

Shelina said...

There is something to be said about moderation - even if you liked something, getting too many is too much. And then all that processing! Goodness!
I would move on to plan B if I were you. You can regift them to someone else who doesn't have such an abundance or you can have your students make craft stuff out of them. Don't send any my way - I've got a post about buckeyes in the works.

anne bebbington said...

I adore roasted chestnuts - it's just part of Christmas to me especially when I lived with my previous partner in a cottage in the woods with an open log fire and we'd roast them on a spade over the embers. I also stuff the enck end of my Christmas turkey with good quality sausage meat mixed with chopped vacuum packed chestnuts and dried cranberries so I always have several tins in the cupboard as I agree they are a real pain to prepare. They're also fabulous in a meaty beef casserole - yum!

Prairie Princess said...

You need to do what I've heard recommended for zuchini: Leave bags of them anonymously in the cars of strangers at the grocery store. You just have to make a quick get-away so they don't catch you and give the stuff back to you.

(I really am joking.)

JudyL said...

I didn't notice your shoes either. I think I'd just let the worms have a feast and then throw out the whole batch -- worms and all.

Beth said...

I'm still chuckling at the "husband looking over my shoulder" comment! Mine would do that to me. I saw the shoes..but didnt' realize what they WERE till you said SHOES! I thought they were some kind of mitt you wore to not poke yourself with the spiny chestnuts! Thanks for the laugh..I needed it!!

Laurie Ann said...

We have chestnuts, the they are the inedible kind. Pretty though.

If I were you I would sneak back out into the forest and dump them out for someone else to collect. They sound like too much work and your students will never know!!

Laurie Ann said...

We have chestnuts, the they are the inedible kind. Pretty though.

If I were you I would sneak back out into the forest and dump them out for someone else to collect. They sound like too much work and your students will never know!!

Rose Marie said...

Your struggles with chestnuts brought back memories of childhood and cleaning hazel nuts. They are terrible to clean and we were always getting tiny slivers from the outer casing in our fingers. They were very tasty and worth the effort!

Helen said...

They are such a pretty colour though with their shiny brown skins.

Patti said...

Of course your shoes are dirty - you've been using them to open wormy chestnuts LOL!

What about "chestnuts roasting on the open fire". In England they roast chestnuts on the street and sell them - I think. Are these the same type of chestnuts? I'm guessing they can't be roasted until after the spiky outsides are removed, right? I've never had roasted chestnuts so I don't know how they taste.

Looks like chestnuts are the same type of gift in Japan that fruitcakes are here in the states. Everyone gives them to everyone else, and no one eats them LOL!