We have a new aspect to the chestnut harvest: the Armor Warning Flag is flying today.
If you have to be among the chestnut trees, for harvest or any other reason- you really better be wearing armor; head, face, shoulders, legs, feet and hands. The trees are throwing bombs, all over.
The high winds are not funny for us, at all; particularly combined with this record hot spell; it's making the chestnuts ripen all at once, drop fast, messily, with leaves and burrs hiding them, and subject to rapid drying (which is NOT good for chestnuts) from the wind and hot sun.
So, we're trying to pick up nuts working just on the north sides of the trees; away from their target areas, today. Can't afford to just not pick them up; we need them for all the reasons there are.
The good press bit: today, Oct. 7, the Rochester Post Bulletin is running two stories on neohybrid hazels, that are nicely complementary. Take a look- if you go on line, you'll need a subscription to see the entire article. Or- pick up a copy of the newspaper, if you're anywhere in the region here.
http://postbulletin.com/news/stories/display.php?id=1471090
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Hello, my name is Elinor. i am a farmer from MN and today I read this article. http://www.allaboutfeed.net/news/chestnuts-for-cattle-feed-12326.html?cmpid=NLC|AllAboutFeed.net|19-okt-2011|Chestnuts%20for%20cattle%20feed
ReplyDeleteThis story fascinated me! I wanted to learn more about chesnuts and see if there were any growers in Minnesota.
What do you folks do with leftover chesnuts?
Hi, Elinor- many thanks; I turned my answer into a post; check it out there.
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