She Sows Seeds

simple country living

That Old Chestnut

by

As we’re still temporarily living at my mums, I’m rediscovering the oh-so-familiar scenes of my childhood home. Through the back gate, over the hill and across the horses paddock, in front of the shearing shed and my grandparents original home, stand two stately and ever-present figures.

IMG_8650 That Old Chestnut | She Sows Seeds IMG_8658 IMG_8663 IMG_8651 IMG_8661 IMG_8665 IMG_8670

These chestnut trees speak to me of crispy Autumn evenings after school picking the prickly shells apart, collecting the nuts with my sister, swinging from their branches, tracing ‘faces’ in the woody grains of the wide trunks and racing home with buckets and buckets of nuts. We would carefully weigh and bag our precious produce to sell to a local grocer in a nearby town, $9 a kilo rings a faint bell.

The trees themselves are some of the oldest European trees in the area, that I know. When my grandparents bought ‘Ballina Park’ in 1947 the trees were already well established. Estimates have put them at 80-100 years or possibly older. Now our beautiful horse Midnight lies forever under her beloved trees, I visited her today, just as usual to be found under the chestnuts, only now nourishing them and the soil they grow in. The chestnut trees make up a huge part of my childhood on the farm, today I wandered beneath their huge canopy, a new little chestnut growing (and kicking!) inside me. The nuts were still very green, not quite ready to drop yet, give them time and the ground will be covered in spiky cases bursting open with shiny brown nuts. Give our baby time and he or she will be ready too, for chestnut picking and lots of adventures in these familiar hills.

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  2. Aww lovely, you write so well. I love your dream and hope for the future. I don’t think I had ever had chestnuts before until yesterday when I had some preserved ones from Japan, a lot different to fresh ones I am sure as they are preserved using something sweet. Very tasty. Keep dreaming, hoping and growing.

  3. You have a lovely way with words!!!

    Trees can be such a powerful memory from childhood. There are a couple of huge old pine trees in the country area where I grew up in NZ. The stand proudly looking out over the sea, holding the bank together and standing guard over the little beach below. The ground is covered in their pine needles and as kids we used to play hide and seek around them, sit in their shade on the beach below or climb them. Whenever I go back to NZ which is not that often these days, just looking at them makes me teary and happy inside all at the same time. It will be a terrible day when I visit and they are no longer there!!
    Can’t wait till your little chestnut arrives!!

  6. I’ve never seen a chestnut tree either! Please share more when you pick/collect. Fascinating, especially the age of the trees.