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after harvest. Stored at 35 degrees F,
they retain their sweet flavor.
“Yield is important, but you must
have quality or they don’t sell,” Avila
said. “They have to be sweet and peel
well.”
“Chestnuts are more like a grain,
containing about 40% carbohydrate,
40% water, 5% to 10% protein and less
than 5% oil,” Avila said.
Harvest in September
The Avila’s chestnut harvest usually
begins about Sept. 10 when the mature
chestnuts begin to fall to the ground.
Those early nuts are harvested by hand.
Avila said as they walk the orchards to
harvest the fallen nuts, they crush the
prickly burr that encases the dark, hard
leathery shell and pick up the nuts by
hand. The burrs are easy to split when
mature. Ideally, Avila said, most of the
crop is already out of the burr at harvest
with only about 30% still encased.
Degree of burr separation from the
shell and ease of pellicle removal from
the nut meat are quality characteristics.
Hand harvest only lasts a short
time. By the end of the month, Avila
said most of the nuts have fallen to
the ground where they are swept in a
windrow and picked up by a machine.
Mechanical shakers come in at the end
to remove the last few nuts.
The Avila’s next step is to sort the
nuts, discarding any that are off-quality.
The nuts are then sized by machine
into four sizes and placed in bags. The
Avilas weigh the bags to make sure they
contain 25 pounds, then place them in
cold storage until they are sold.
Chestnut value is related to its size,
with the larger nuts at the highest value.
Ease of Production
Orchard care for chestnut trees is
relatively easy. Avila said he does not
have organic certification, but need for
insecticide application is rare. Insect
pests are not an issue in his orchards,
Avila said.
Nutrition is also a factor in nut size.
Avila said postharvest potash application
is done prior to winter rains and, if
needed, nitrogen is applied in March.
Avila said the burrs left on the
orchard floor add organic material to
the soils and foster growth of beneficial
Joe and Jenni Avila run The Chestnut Farm, a family operation that grows, harvests, processes
and sells chestnuts onsite.
microbes and night crawlers that aerate
the soil and aid in nutrient uptake by
the trees. The organic matter also holds
soil moisture. In mature orchards,
weeds are not a problem due to shading
on much of the orchard floor. When
trees are young, he said cover crops
are used to add organic matter. Avila
said he does incorporate some of the
orchard debris, but most has decomposed
by the next harvest season. He
does some scraping to keep the orchard
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middles flat.
Most of those production practices
focus on producing top yield and
quality.
“You need yields, but what is really
important is to have the quality, the
flavor and easy peeling or they won’t
sell well.”
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