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Full-Day Chestnut Immersion

Full-Day Chestnut Immersion

Spend a day on the beautiful and peaceful Middle Creek Farm learning all about chestnuts.

11 am - 1 pm
Chestnut Orchard Start-Up: Laying the Foundation for Abundance

Join Michael Judd, permaculture designer, speaker, and nut enthusiast, for an insightful how-to on starting a chestnut orchard from seed to rows of productive trees.
Hybrid chestnuts have proven to be a highly valuable and marketable product, with growers and co-ops around the country selling out almost immediately after harvest. But how to ensure that your orchard design and maintenance sets you up for abundant harvest and ease of management? Invest your time at the start into intelligent design.
During this workshop we will explore:
-How to choose and acquire the best genetics for your nut trees
-Site design and planting preparation
-Techniques for ensuring high tree survival rate and vitality, including options for tree tubes and mulching
-Pruning strategies for optimizing air flow, light, and yields
-Strategies for low-maintenance orchard care

1 - 2 pm Bring your own Lunch and Explore the Farm

2 - 4:30 pm
Chestnut Harvesting and Processing: Food for the Future

Join Eric Joseph Lewis, highly knowledgeable plant enthusiast, on the journey from chestnut harvest to finished products for the table. The American chestnut was once a staple food for wildlife, Native American tribes, and subsistence farmers of the east coast until the chestnut blight of the early twentieth century almost entirely eliminated it from our regional ecosystems. Today we have the opportunity to work with Chinese Chestnuts and Asian-American hybrids to create a new regenerative food system with this calorie and nutrient rich nut at its center.

During this workshop we will explore:
-Strategies for harvesting, transporting, and storing chestnuts
-Designs and techniques for hot water dunking chestnuts to eliminate weevil pests and preserve product quality
-Best practices for chestnut storage
-Options for value-added products, such as dehydration, smoking, and milling into chestnut flour