Sweet Chestnut, Castanea sativa: "Beauty in Utility" Handsome, long-lived, with texture galore, sweet chestnuts in their several varieties are distinguishe
The chestnut tree is not only beautiful but can live to be over a thousand years old. In addition to providing luxurious shade, the chestnut tree’s nuts are a reliable food source that can sustain people for extended periods and some species of the chestnut tree also get very large. The ancient chestnut tree is […]
Under a spreading chestnut-tree The village smithy stands; So begins H. D. Longfellow's poem 'The Village Blacksmith' one oft-remembered by people of a certain age in the UK as a poem they've learnt in school. While the poem is more about impressing the fact that "at the flaming forge of life/ Our fortunes must be wrought;", for me it ends at the first line itself. For when one begins to contemplate the spreading chestnut-tree neither fortunes nor the flaming forges of life manage to get a…