Chestnut the short story
Sweet Chestnut (Castanea sativa) produces the nuts you can eat, not
to be confused with 'conkers' which come from the Horse Chestnut (Aeseulus
hippocastanum) and are completely useless, except for children of all ages
to bang against each other. Sweet Chestnut grows freely in the southern
counties of England, likes virtually any type of soil from clay to flint,
flourishes in drought as well as heavy rain so long as well drained. Chestnut
can be harvested at 3 years for walking sticks and from 10 years on for
palings, posts, tree stakes, bean poles, shingles for roofing (many churches
in southern England have Oak or Chestnut shingles) flooring and charcoal
and fuel for wood burning stoves (don't use it on a open fire as it spits)
The act of cutting Chestnut is referred to as coppicing, cut during
the winter months from late October till the end of March, the new shoots
will attain up to 10' by September that year. Coppicing encourages new
grow and is beneficial to wildlife and a host of plants, moths and insects.
Bluebells run riot after fresh cutting and combined with mature Oak and
Ash 'standards' (these are trees left, maybe four to six cycles of coppicing
until older enough for sawn logs) produce a wonderful woodscape and superb
woodland husbandry.
We are often accused of devastating the forest by uninformed members
of the public who for some reason strongly believe that cutting any tree
is a mortal sin. Coppicing is a harvest and should be looked upon as a
valuable resource.
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