Beginning in November, "Heisse Marroni" (hot chestnut) stands would pop up all over Zurich and be a fixture on the street corners til March. For about 5 francs you'd get a little paper cone filled with hot, roasted chestnuts. It seems that people either love roasted chestnuts or hate them. We were definitely in the "love 'em" camp - even Lukas. We'd get a coneful just about every other day.
When we moved back to the States, it was just one more of the things that we missed about CH. So I was practically giddy when I found out that there was a chestnut tree farm less than an hour from our house.
We headed out on a beautiful sunny day, got instructions from the owner of the orchard & then donning thick leather gloves to protect our hands from the prickly shell of the chestnut - set out for our picking. Chestnut "picking", it turns out, isn't really picking off the tree, but gathering chestnuts off the ground. Since these orchards are planted on hills, we were scrambling up & down looking for the biggest chestnuts - it feels like a kind of treasure hunt & it is easy to get carried away. As we were leaving we met a family that had picked $80 worth of chestnuts. I asked them what they were going to do with all of them & they said they had no idea - they just overpicked!
The best chestnuts seemed to be on the steepest slopes
Most of the people out picking were Asians & Europeans - I guess chestnuts are more prevalent in those cultures. Strangely enough, there were also ALOT of pregnant women out there too (myself - 8 mos along - included). It was quite funny to watch all these women trying to make their way up & down the steep slopes.
Anyways, a fun beautiful fall day. And we are getting pretty good at grilling the "heisse marroni" just like in Zurich.......
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