no, the prickly one

there are lots of chestnuts visible on trees right now. it’s tempting to think of them all as “chestnuts” ready to be roasted by an open fire. but the smoot-husked, easy to pick up, black-walnut looking chestnuts are actually horse chestnuts, and not edible. the chestnut everyone wants to eat here, like so much else that is edible in the south of France, is full of spines and needle-sharp defenses. sort of like the blackberry, the artichoke, the blackthorn, the wild rose, and the gooseberry. yes, of the two chestnuts that grow in the hills behind us, the edible one is not the one that is easier to harvest. no the edible one is the prickly one. the one that pierces your leather gloves, and leaves your fingers stippled with blood.

chestnuts/châtaigniers