Kastaiings – Chestnut

Gesegde:

Die kastaiings uit die vuur haal vir iemand

(be made a cat’s paw of)

CHESTNUTS

I found the following seed pod while photographing in Cambridge.

At first I could not think of what it was!

They were under this big tree.

Then on Saturday we were at the duck pond in Upper Hutt

I found the following!

It seems that the first one are eatable chestnuts and the last two

are photos of wild horse chestnut!

The following information from

http://www.kai.org.nz/chestnut

The sweet nut from a deciduous Tree growing to 30 m by 15 m at a medium rate. It is hardy and is not frost tender. Take care to differentiate the sweet chestnut from the poisonous horse chestnut which has a smoother less fluffy shell (although the poisonous component saponins are poorly absorbed by the human body and so most pass through without harm. Saponins are quite bitter and can be found in many common foods such as some beans. They can be removed by carefully leaching the seed or flour in running water. Thorough cooking, and perhaps changing the cooking water once, will also normally remove most of them. However, it is not advisable to eat large quantities of food that contain saponins).