Chestnut Carnival 2025

The week before Chestnut Carnival is sort of like "chestnut playtime."

Here comes a chestnut Macaroon--best cookie I've ever eaten--the maker wondering about getting space at the Plant.

Meadow knocked out these chestnut cookies--along with a remarkable Castagnaccio.

Redtail Grains in Mebane is bringing out a new pancake mix, based on 25% chestnut flour from Route 9 Cooperative in Ohio. BMC Brewing has stockpiled a chestnut brown ale for the occasion.

At Fair Game Beverage, where the Chestnut Carnival originated--based on a pair of chestnut trees in the yard--we are putting the finishing touches on this year's Chestnut Rum Cream--which is part of our House Made Liqueurs program.

My phone is blowing up from customers wanting to secure their chestnut tree orders. Rachel at Rachel's Native Plants looks after tree sales. Getting tree orders in early makes sense--Rachel sold out of Paw Paw trees in the first couple of hours of Paw Paw Palooza earlier this year.

Customers ping me wanting chestnuts in the shell--or shelled--wanting recipes, guidance and advice on growing chestnuts.

Fernando blew up Instagram by slicing and dicing clips from an old chestnut movie that Carey McKelvey made. I'd forgotten about that one. In the movie I'm saying stuff like "If we want to save the tree, we should eat it."

This is the third year of Chestnut Carnival. I sometimes forget that I once drove around the neighborhood giving away chestnut trees that I had scored for very little from a local nursery that had lost track of their provenance. In the nursery business, when you don't know what the cultivar is, the plant material becomes next to worthless.

Zach Petersen of Rock County Chestnuts has been backstocking me this year as usual with both shelled and in shell chestnut fruit. He's an actual chestnut farmer from Rockingham County. I'm more of a "gentleman chestnut farmer," less interested in production tonnage than in chestnut products we can eat. He will be back this year, serving roasted chestnuts to a curious public that best knows chestnuts from a Nat King Cole song--but has never tasted one in real life.

These days before the Chestnut Carnival are a lot of fun. New customers. New recipes. New vendors. And lots of conversations about how we can bring the chestnut back to our culinary landscape...

Come join us if you are able. We will be roasting chestnuts and continuing the conversation at a cocktail party Saturday night:

The actual Chestnut Carnival will be this Sunday from 12:00--6:00 at the Plant in Pittsboro: