Chestnut Brae Farm - Carlotta

Picking your own Chestnuts
Autumn is the time when chestnuts come into season ,we met John the owner who guided us up to the orchard of chestnut trees, walking though the forrest with the sunlight breaking though ,broke up the heat for us to pick our chestnuts. It’s rather exciting picking the chestnuts off the ground,
Within 30 mins we had managed to collect 4.5kg there’s a sense of achievement when your basket fills full of these sweet chestnuts, I thought John ( who happened to be from Great Barr ) , eye’s were going to pop out when he saw our stash! Bless him , never put two floorers in an orchard of food, it’s like putting two hoovers in there! Apparently we broke the record most people only pick 2kg! Boom

The processing of the chestnuts is another level, over the next few days I had access to an oven at Poppy’s place so the processing began. To roast , peel 4.5kg of these little suckers was intense, it must of took me a good 10hrs to get through them all and then where to store them!? You just don’t think about that when the excitement of collecting these little gems takes over. Thankfully at the time we had freezer space!
We purchased honey, flour made from chestnuts and smoked ham from John’s pigs that had been reared on the property, we’ve crushed some of the chestnuts over pasta dishes, Thai curry’s all been delicious just another 3.5kg to go!

Chestnut Brae Farm is a 70-acre idyllic farm that is farmed sustainably using regenerative agriculture and holistic management. The farm is covered by mature organic sweet chestnut forests, mushroom crops, heirloom vegetables and heritage animals. The sweet chestnut trees produce 12 tonnes of chestnuts each autumn, which is used to feed the grazing animals and make sweet flavored meat.

The chestnuts are also processed to make organic gluten-free chestnut flour, chestnuts in syrup, peeled frozen chestnuts, and other chestnut-based products. The farm also produces chestnut honey and chestnut orchard honey from the European-looking orchards. John and Linda have a passion for healthy living, healthy food and a healthy planet. They purchased the farm in 2013 with the goal of creating a sustainable, organic, self-sufficient farm producing a range of unique chestnut-based products.Læs mere