The beautiful autumn chestnut landscape in Andalucia © Michelle Chaplow |
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Three curious anecdotes about chestnuts:
- Sweet chestnuts should not be confused with horse chestnuts, which are found in the UK tied on strings and used in a game called conkers; these horse chestnuts are poisonous although they are obtained from a tree of the same name.
- Chestnuts have also been sneaking their way into local vocabulary: a person who ‘tiene castañas’ or ‘has chestnuts’ is a person who is hard to deal with. The chestnuts themselves aren’t easy to harvest, with their prickly shells and protective husks.
- Tostón is the chestnut festival, where chestnuts are roasted and consumed with anis. The chestnut itself isn’t easily digestible and is consumed with anis to aid digestion. If a person is referred to as a ‘tostón’, it means that they are rather unpalatable.
Chestnut celebration
As you can imagine, after the harvest there’s a celebration. Read more >
Chestnuts in Andalucia
The aroma of delicious sweet roast chestnuts roasting on the streets of Andalucía from late October to December Read more >
