Thanks to their energy-giving properties, chestnuts were the bread of Europe's submontane populations; today their astringent properties support our health
Thanks to their high energy-giving properties, the chestnut was, until the end of the Second World War, the bread and polenta of submontane populations throughout Europe. For this reason, it was considered not so much a fruit as a true cereal.
The main components of chestnuts are: tannin, glucides, lipids, proteins, mineral salts, calcium, sodium, potassium, phosphorus, copper and iron. The fruit is particularly rich in starches (31% when fresh, 60% when dried), carbohydrates, proteins and vitamins B, C and PP.
The leaves have a strong sedative and antispasmodic action against all cold-related ailments, which are typically autumnal. They also act as a powerful febrifuge, to such an extent that in the past they were used to treat malarial fever. Thanks to their astringent effect on the mucous membranes throughout the body, they are used against catarrh, diarrhoea, haemorrhoids and haemorrhages, and as adjuvants in the treatment of pre-varicose syndrome, phlebitis and states of capillary fragility. Traditional herbalism used chestnut leaves to stop haemorrhages and to alleviate very heavy menstrual bleeding.
Chestnuts are a fruit that ripens between late August and November. Once they have fallen, they can be freely gathered. Chestnuts often remain inside their burr, in which case it must be opened by pressing down with one's feet. To avoid being pricked by the burrs, one should always wear gloves and a pair of hard-soled shoes; a pair of boots or trekking shoes is perfectly suitable.
A small parasite can live inside some chestnuts, and if you do not wish to eat it, you need to separate the good chestnuts from the infested ones. A rudimentary but effective method is to place the chestnuts in a bowl of water. The defective ones will be those that float.
A delicate recipe that speaks volumes of autumn flavours.
A dive into the scents of the autumn forest.
Born from something sweet, it transforms into a sweet-and-savoury dish.
The natural extract of chestnut leaves is also used by the cosmetics industry as an antibacterial agent to combat germs and bacteria. Chestnuts, chestnut leaves and their decoction are useful for:
Known by the name of "bread tree", the chestnut tree played a fundamental role in the mountain economy until just a few decades ago. The tree has virtues in its wood, which is rich in tannin, resistant, long-lasting, and good for the construction of beams, furniture and fixtures, but the value of the chestnut tree lies above all in its fruit.
Chestnut cultivation for fruit received a great boost in the Middle Ages at the behest of Countess Matilda of Canossa, and the chestnut was quickly nicknamed "the bread of the poor", lending itself to countless forms of consumption. The chestnut is indeed a healthy, digestible food with high nutritional and calorific value, and can be eaten both fresh and dried, by cooking the fruit, adding it as a main ingredient or seasoning in various preparations, or by turning it into flour, creams and sweets.
The chestnut harvest has always been a moment of community gathering and celebration in which the elderly and children also took part. The following description is taken from a text on "trades and stories" compiled at a school in Dicomano, in the province of Florence: "In October the farmers would use large pole canes to knock the marrons from the tree. Some would pile up the burrs together using large rakes and then beat them so that the marrons came out of the burr. Others, either by hand or with tongs, would open the burrs and take out the marrons."
The chestnut tree was, and remains in part, a true protagonist around which the entire economic activity, diet and social relations revolved. The inhabitants of the villages adapted their rhythms to those of nature and vegetation: from the maintenance of the woodland, to the harvesting of the fruit, from the sourcing of timber for the making of tools, to the extraction of tannin for the curing of hides. Today there are approximately three hundred varieties of fruit in Italy. Among these, the marron is distinguished from the common chestnut by its shape and by the quality of its flesh, which is fine-grained and very sweet in flavour — the result of natural and human factors, obtained by following a precise methodology that prohibits the use of fertilisers and synthetic pesticides.