Hill Craddock - Chestnuts: A Tree Crop Archetype

Chestnut trees have been cultivated for thousands of years for their sweet, edible nuts, and were a staple of traditional cultures in East Asia, Europe, and eastern North America. Migrating peoples carried chestnuts as far as South America, Australia, New Zealand and the West Coast of North America. Chestnut flour was once a staple of Mediterranean cooking. Chestnut trees provided timbers, wicker, fuel, tannin, and even medicinal astringents from their leaves. Along with the grapevine and the olive tree, the European chestnut is one of the great pillars upon which Mediterranean civilization was built. Chinese and Japanese chestnut trees played similar roles in China, Korea and Japan.https://knowledge.e.southern.edu/grundset/1044/thumbnail.jp