A shiny horse chestnut is still partially encased in its spiny husk.
Once again it is the third week of October, the season to gather horse chestnuts and say something about them. But what is there to say about these shiny brown nuts?
I wrote something about horse chestnuts four years ago, on Oct. 19, 2019. You can look it up.
In England, they call the nuts conkers. That story four years ago prompted comments from two readers who had grown up in England long ago. They fondly recalled the game of conkers, and one described how it was played.
The chestnuts in that story, and in this one, I found on Broadway Street in Albany. The Broadway trees are lined up on the block on the west side of the campus of the National Energy Technology Lab, the former Albany branch of the U.S. Bureau of Mines.
There should be some use for these chestnuts. Maybe there is, but not as a food. People can’t eat them because unlike the kind of chestnuts some people roast at Christmas, horse chestnuts (Aesculus hippocastanum) are extremely bitter and poisonous too. (I’m not inclined to test this, so I’m taking the internet’s word for it.)
Horse chestnuts look kind of neat, I think, when they’re fresh and have just fallen off the tree. If you collect a few and put them in a box and forget them there, they turn hard and their shine wears off.
Then you can throw them away and wait for next October to pick up a few more. (hh)
These are the chestnut trees along Broadway Street near the National Energy Technology Lab.
Every October these trees produce a bountiful crop. The photo is from a bike ride on Oct. 18, 2023.
As kids we used to throw these at each other just for fun. The spikes made for a much more interesting “hit.” Maybe you should take a basket full to your next City Council meeting?
Good suggestion Jeff!
LOL. Smiling! Big spikes thrown?!
When I was a kid we made hockey sticks out of lath material we could find laying around the mill town where we lived, put on our roller skates and use the chestnuts as hockey pucks. They didn’t last long.
I have one in my backyard and find new starts every spring some quite a distance from the tree. Jays and crows like to pick them up and drop them where than can, if circumstances are right, sprout and thrive.
And Fall is here !
Also… just a note to say Thank You Hasso for all the work you do to keep the public updated on what is going on in Albany. You are truly appreciated by this reader !!
They are also known as Buckeyes.