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Storing Chestnuts For Many Weeks
Washington Chestnut Company has been performing chestnut storage tests for
over a decade to help consumers extend the storage of fresh chestnuts. The
storage tests have proved to be a great investment. Chestnuts without proper
handling usually will not store for more than 3 to 5 weeks. In our latest
storage test we took some chestnut with the first signs of molds/fungus growth
and processed them to achieve stable storage of chestnuts until late December
from chestnuts harvested in October and early November without the use of
magic.
These chestnuts are molding because they were not processed properly after harvest Here are few things were tried but were not satisfied with the results: 1. Hot water bath warm enough to kill some fungus/models but not hot enough to kill the chestnuts 2. A bleach bath 3. Freezing Of these three options the bleach bath gave the best results. We felt 4 weeks of storage was not good enough so we continued to try to find a better process. The hot water bath did not help at all, maybe even causing a shortened storage life. Freezing changed the chestnut texture to a mush, not so good for eating quality. In mid December a bag containing Basatla #2 chestnuts and Regis Montis chestnuts was found in the cooler with small (white) spots of fungus/molds on the outer shell of the chestnuts. We have seen this before and know if immediate action is not taken the fungus/molds will destroy the chestnuts. The first action was to wash the chestnut under running water in the sink to wash off the white spots. Once the chestnuts were washed we allowed the chestnuts to drain all excess water off. The next step was to kill the fungus/molds and their spores that might still be on the chestnuts. This required a bath. We knew bleach baths have limited success, we needed something better. We chose to try potassium metabisulfite, a product used in the process of making wines and beers, yes beer saved the world again. We placed 1 tsp of potassium metabisulfite in a gallon of water and used this as the bath solution. With the one gallon of bath we were able to successfully process about 10 pounds of chestnuts. The chestnuts were placed in the bath for 5 minutes. After the bath the chestnuts were laid out to dry in a single layer on cookie sheets at normal room temperature. The chestnuts were allowed to dry/cure for about 4 days. Once the chestnuts had sweetened up, we ate a few to test the taste. The process did not have any bad effects on the taste or texture of the chestnuts. 
These chestnuts are in perfect condition because they were processed properly after harvest Now that we have nice sweet, easy peeling fresh chestnuts, it was time to put them away for a long nap for the winter months. This step was simply placing the chestnuts in a plastic shopping bag, tying up the top and placing the bag in the refrigerator. Now the chestnuts will store for another 4 – 10 weeks. Total storage time from harvest was over 10 weeks. This is 5 times longer than the 2 weeks of storage we started with. Our storage test is still ongoing. We hope to have fresh chestnut from this process into the following March after the fall harvest in October. We have a ecommerce web site at www.BuyFreshChestnuts.com for purchasing fresh chestnuts and chestnut trees from us. |
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