Chestnuts trees were once plentiful across the Northeast and parts of the South in the United States. So plentiful, in fact, that they’d be sold by the railroad car in east coast and mid-western cities during growing season. This market collapsed though during the American Chestnut Blight during the early to mid-1900s. The cause being from a fungus imported via Japanese and Chinese chestnuts at the Bronx Zoological Garden.
During this time, an estimated 3 to 4 billion American chestnut trees were destroyed. Americans turned to Italian chestnuts to keep their favorite fall and winter dishes on the dinner table. But by the ’90s, Chinese chestnuts began taking over the market with their cheaper price.
Re-forestation efforts for blight-resistant American chestnuts have been ongoing in recent decades, but this once plentiful staple of American life is still a minor crop in the U.S. Their lasting impact on American culture can be seen, though. Almost every town in the east coast has a street or neighborhood named after chestnuts, and almost every person who spent a December in the U.S. will know the phrase, “Chestnuts roasting on an open fire.”
Buon appetito!
