Gather-Your-Own-Orchard Sells Rare Locally Grown Holiday Chestnuts

Nina Moore, local artist/designer, drove by the sign that read, “Skyline Chestnuts”, on Skyline Boulevard many times  before she decided a couple of years ago to turn in on the dirt road. Part of her curiosity was “a remembrance of things past”, her French ancestral traditions.

She remembered how her grandmother and mother would cook "marrons” (French for “chestnuts”) for the holidays, stuffing them into turkey dressing or roasting and glazing the nuts with butter and “a smidge of brown sugar.”

When Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote the words, “Under a
spreading chestnut tree,” the American Chestnut tree covered the forests east of the Mississippi River, providing lumber and a delicious food source for the settlers. However in the early 20^th century a fungal disease wiped out practically all the plants.

According to the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District, which owns the land, “Today it (Skyline Chestnuts) is one of three of its kind in California. Most chestnuts sold in the U.S. are now imported from Europe and Asia.”

The Skyline orchard, whose trees were supposedly transplanted by a Spaniard in 1850, survived due to its isolation.

 “Eight years ago this looked like a war zone of trees,” said Hans Johsens, manager of the gather-your-own orchard, as he looked out over the 20 acres of chestnut trees growing at the top of the Santa Cruz Mountains.

“The trees were being abused by people who took ropes and grappling hooks to them. It was total anarchy and a mess. It took us three years to make all 120 trees accessible,” he said.

“We use super organic methods of farming here. We don’t use any artificial fertilizers or pesticides. We use all mechanical methods for weeding.”

The work and devotion to the trees was worth it, though, because people come from all over the world and say the chestnuts are as delicious as the ones from their native countries.

 “People tell me year after year that the nuts are getting more plentiful and bigger," Johsens said. "The blooms came later this year because of the cool, rainy spring. I watch them carefully because we bring in 15 beehives to make chestnut honey each year.”

The jars sold out in less than a week when the orchard recently reopened.

Although he admitted he was no sommelier, Johnsens described the honey as, “mellow, smoky- flavored, with a little bit of astringency to it, kind of like the oak in a cabaret. We don’t pasteurize like you get in stores. The best kind of raw honey is local honey.”

The best chestnuts are locally grown, too, so Moore decided this year to share her secret stash with her fellow members of the Santa Cruz Meetup group, Take a Hike!

“We hike a lot in the Santa Cruz Mountains and I thought this would make a nice destination," said Moore.

"It filled up right away and I had to cut it at 20. It’s great that people want to do it! Meetup is just a wonderful organization. It gets people out; it gets people meeting each other; it gets people doing fun things.

"All it takes is just someone with an idea and people who want to do it”, said Moore, who likes to give away some of her chestnuts to her “foodie friends as gifts.”

After gathering their booty, the members hiked back to their cars by Horse Shoe Lake and headed up Skyline Boulevard for brunch at Alice’s Restaurant in Woodside.

Skyline Chestnuts welcomes children and Jennifer Collins and her family had come up for the morning, too. “The kids thought it was just like treasure hunting. They had a blast,” she said of Jack, three and Jane, two. “It’s been a great adventure.”

Although a chestnut novice, she said, “We’re going to be trying to put them in our stuffing, roasting some, and trying to find recipes on line.”

Dogs are welcome, too, but are restricted to the store and picnic areas. The orchard closes down when the crop is gone. “Probably a week after Thanksgiving,” said Johsens. Then he begins work at his Christmas tree farm.

Call (408) 395-0337 for updated orchard information, or email Hans Johsens at h.johsens@gmail.com. Contact Skyline’s website at www.skylinechestnuts.com for more information.

Contact the Meetup group at: http://www.meetup.com/oh-go-take-a-hike/

If you are interested in starting your own holiday tradition by planting chestnut trees, call Charlie Keutmann, owner of The Garden Company at 2218 Mission Street, at 429-8424 to determine availability and planting requirements.

You can also read “American Chestnut: The Life, Death, and Rebirth of a Perfect Tree” written by Susan Freinkel and published by the University of California Press (2009).