WCN Dec e
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Sweet Flavor<br />
Keeps Chestnut<br />
Buyers Coming<br />
Back for More<br />
By CECILIA PARSONS | Associate Editor<br />
Be Brighter Off<br />
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with renewable energy solutions. It means empowering you — the people<br />
behind the business. We meet every partnership with dedicated support,<br />
upfront information, and the kind of guidance and expertise that shines<br />
a bright light ahead for you and your business.<br />
We are JKB Energy, and we’ll see you through.<br />
Your Solar Questions Answered<br />
209-668-5303 | JKBENERGY.COM<br />
Chestnuts in California have very few pest or<br />
disease problems (all photos courtesy Jenni Avila.)<br />
Chestnuts are not just a Christmas<br />
season specialty. The familiar<br />
Christmas song gained this unique<br />
tree nut a place at the holiday table, but<br />
its sweet flavor places chestnuts among<br />
the ingredients for many dishes prepared<br />
year-round.<br />
Joe and Jenni Avila, chestnut growers<br />
in the Modesto area, were familiar with<br />
chestnut use in Portuguese cuisine when<br />
they began growing chestnuts, but found<br />
their customers of diverse ethnic backgrounds<br />
value chestnuts for their sweet<br />
flavor. The Avila family operation, The<br />
Chestnut Farm, grows, harvests, processes<br />
and sells chestnuts onsite. Weeks prior<br />
to Christmas, in most years, they must<br />
hang their ‘sold out’ sign.<br />
Not a Native Nut<br />
Like most tree nuts grown in California,<br />
chestnuts are not native to the state.<br />
According to a UC Small Farms report,<br />
historically, chestnut tree forests were<br />
found in most East Coast states where<br />
trees grew to heights of 100 feet and the<br />
trunks were three to four feet in diameter.<br />
In the early 1900s, the species was<br />
decimated by the fungal disease Chestnut<br />
blight.<br />
More recently, development of a<br />
chestnut species tolerant to blight was<br />
initiated by State University of New York<br />
College of Environmental Science and<br />
Forestry (SUNY). Last year, the university<br />
sought deregulation of Darling 58,<br />
an American chestnut variety developed<br />
using genetic engineering for tolerance<br />
to chestnut blight.<br />
Continued on Page 62<br />
60 West Coast Nut <strong>Dec</strong>ember 2021
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