harveyc

It largely depends on how quickly they were harvested, how they were handled by the grower after harvest, and how the consumer stores them. Chestnuts that are allowed to dry out after falling from the tree will often get moldy sooner, though it seems to be affected by the cultivar also. Many growers store them in a cooler with a mesh bag that allows them to dry out and some growers don't keep them cold enough (chestnuts freeze at about 25-26F). I served a term as president of the Chestnut Growers of America and even after I had a post-harvest technology professor from UC Davis speak to a group of chestnut growers there were some that failed to reform their practices. Some growers don't bother to wash their chestnuts before put them into cold storage. Putting chestnuts straight into poly bags can also be a problem because of condensation. I harvest chestnuts as promptly as I can, though sometimes we don't get through the entire orchard in a day. We sort by size (except our Italian Marroni) and wash them (just fresh water, though some growers foolishly IMO use water mixed with bleach), and then pack into mesh bags for about three days. Then, after condensation has evaporated, I pack them into poly bags in which I've made some small ventilation holes. This allows some additional condensation to escape, limits O2 so that transpiration slows down, but still lets some O2 in so that the nuts do not die. A chestnut that has been killed will get moldy much quicker. I suggested to one grower that they could put a plastic bag over their head and I'd come back in a couple of weeks to see if they had turned green yet!

Okay, the short answer: chestnuts from our farm should last for 2-4 months in your vegatable drawer. I keep some just about year round and by February or so I will see some that turn moldy. However, when Eating Well Magazine contacted me in early August wanting chestnuts for a cover shot, I still had some from last year that were fine after I washed them up slightly.

I suggest that anyone who wants good quality chestnuts buy them directly from the grower as soon after harvest as possible unless they know from experience how well the grower does handling their product. Very few markets carry chestnuts that are worth buying, in my opinion. Many of these are dried out and/or moldy.

To reiterate, I am not trying to sell chestnuts here. If you enjoy chestnuts, you'd probably enjoy mine. I think the Italian Marroni are the best chestnuts and so do most of my customers that order them. An older Italian told me in a phone conversation last year that these are better than he ever had in Italy, though I think I had better ones in Italy when I went to a conference there in 2001. On the other hand, there are a few customers that say they prefer my Colossal cultivar. I'm glad we don't all have the same preferences. If we did, we might only have one banana cultivar to chose from! LOL

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