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Home - CUPS Videos - Growing Food - A Low-Tech Organic Chestnut Farmer – video

A Low-Tech Organic Chestnut Farmer – video

I’ve had a curiosity about chestnuts for many years – since childhood, actually. We used to go Fall hunting for the ‘perfect’ chestnut as they fell to the ground. But those were horse chestnuts, not the edible type. There was the old classic song, Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire, kept alive most notably by the Nat King Cole version. But the edible kind weren’t available by the time I was growing up – most of the big American chestnut trees were wiped out by a fungus in the early 1900’s. For me, chestnuts were a mythical food.

A Low-Tech Organic Chestnut Farmer

Here in the Pacific Northwest, chestnuts are sold at the farmers market and grocery stores that source them locally. I wanted to learn more about them and discovered Chris Foster, an organic chestnut farmer on the outskirts of Portland, Oregon. Foster’s farm, Cascadia Chestnuts, consists of 8 acres, 5 of which are dedicated to growing about six different cultivars. He grows prized Italian and French cultivars which are seldom found in the U.S.

Chris Foster, Organic Chestnut Farmer
Chris Foster, Cascadia Chestnuts; Portland, Oregon

As you’ll see in the video, Foster harvests the chestnuts by hand with the help of his wife, Andee, and a WWOOF intern. They are washed, sorted, and sanitized by hand, then stored at 32ºF in a walk-in refrigerator until it’s time to go to market. They’re currently producing about 2,000 pounds per acre with the eventual goal to reach around 3,000 pounds per acre.

“Fortunately, you know the beauty of doing agriculture near the city is I’m 20 minutes away from my market. I can go on a Friday, leave here at, oh, 6:30 and go to 12-14 stores and be home at Noon.”, says Chris Foster.

Organic Chestnuts Open On Tree Limb
Chestnuts are not really a nut, according to Foster, they are more like a grain growing on a tree.

According to Foster, 90% of the U.S. consumption are from imports, representing about 10 million pounds of chestnuts on an annual basis. That’s a lot of chestnuts!

For Chris Foster, providing his local community a high quality locally grown product that also creates lesser impact on the environment is a win-win for everyone involved.

By:
Cooking Up a Story
Published on:
October 14, 2014

Categories: CUPS Videos, Growing Food, Short Documentary Stories

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A 10-year exploration of our food system through original videos, and written posts by CUPS contributors. Explore our Stories, Interviews, DIY Food, Recipes, Growing Food categories as experts and passionate foodies share their first-hand knowledge of food and sustainable farming.