a little foraging with my Hiker

F

fishiker

Joined
Nov 5, 2006
Messages
5,286
My parents took me to the forest often while I was a boy. We never went just for the sake of being out but always with a purpose. I took a wonderful trip down memory lane this morning when I discovered a sizable stand of chinkapin trees with nuts ready for harvest. As a boy I never enjoyed the picking as much as I did today. I hope to go back for another pic, there was one tree so heavy with chinkapins that the limbs were bowed. Here's part of my crop along with my favorite JK
DSC01295 by fishiker, on Flickr
 
Some species of Chestnut are called Chinkapin. There is also a Chinkapin Oak that has sweet, edible acorns.

Jeff
 
Last edited:
They are like small chestnuts. They grow inside a very spiny shell called a burr. In my pic you can see a nut inside the green burr. The burr cracks open as the nuts begin to get ripe. They taste very much like a chestnut, some people say they are sweeter but it may be only because the work is so much for such a small bite. We were hiking in an area where my parents used to take me to pick chinkapins many years ago. There is a lot of information online, here is a link from the state: http://www.dof.virginia.gov/trees/alleg-chinkapin.htm
 
KYenglish, Wikipedia shows the habitat covering almost the entire state of Kentucky. The burrs are easy to spot if you get near the trees. They look just like a small chestnut burr with most of the trees being 5-15 feet tall.
 
Nice picture - thanks for the info.

The nuts do look like acorns - I would be interested in trying a bite of one.


thanks again for the picture and link.

best

mqqn
 
Made it back to the mountain yesterday just before dark. Here's a couple more pics, the close-up is a burr that is open with the nut ready to be harvested. That is the best way to find them but we often end up prying the burr open and paying for it with pokes from the needles of the burr.
chinkapin by fishiker
chinkapin by fishiker
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top