"I was delighted, therefore, while on a writing retreat in Umbria last month, to get the opportunity to watch an elderly couple manoeuvre a giant vacuum around their haphazard orchard, followed by their furious sheepdog. The fallen crop was sucked into a giant fan that spat their bristly jackets back out on to the ground, and the nuts then went to be sorted by other family members on a conveyor belt in the barn"
"If you've never eaten chestnuts hot from the shell or if, like me, it's been a while since you've done so I urge you to seek them out, even just once. The vacuum-packed, ready-cooked and peeled sort are, of course, extremely convenient, and ideal for the likes of Jacob Kenedy's grandmother's braised quail with chestnuts, or his dad's boozy montebianco dessert, but they're a quite different beast from the sweetly smoky, roasted variety, so fresh that you scald your fingers on them and don't care."
An elderly couple in Umbria harvest fallen chestnuts using a giant vacuum dragged through their orchard, accompanied by a working sheepdog. The machine feeds the nuts to a barn conveyor belt where family members sort the crop; prime nuts are sold in the shell while imperfect specimens are set aside for processing. Local producers deliver bags to a village lorry for collection. Freshly roasted chestnuts have a sweet, smoky quality and are best eaten hot from the shell. Ready-cooked, peeled chestnuts are convenient for recipes but differ markedly in flavor and texture.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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