Wordless Wednesday - Chestnut Trees and Chestnuts

Remember the song, Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire? 

Well I found a walkway with a row of prolific chestnut trees lining the side of a main street about15 minutes from my house.

How I found the chestnut trees.
My car wasn't working today,  so I had to walk to an appointment two miles away. 

I walked through a street that was tree lined with chestnut trees!! 

I wasn't sure what kind of trees they were at first.

The ground under the trees was covered with very sharp spiny balls that obviously fell from the trees. I know they were extremely sharp because I tried to pick one up.- bad idea...

After examining the spiny balls, the contents of the spiny balls, and the trees, I thought that they looked like chestnuts- but I wasn't sure.

I also saw some green balls still in the trees.

Actually for the past few weeks I had noticed groups of people of Asian background collecting something as I drove by. But from the road I could never tell what it was. ( I was curious)

Since I was walking, I was determined to discover what was so precious. 

There was a lone woman wearing heavy duty gloves who looked like she knew what she was doing. 

I asked her what was inside these spiny balls. Her English was broken, and she wasn't sure of the English name- she thought it might be a walnut. 

She told me she cooked it with a chicken dish and that these " nuts" were $7.00 a pound if you had to buy them. Instead, she was collecting what she could find. It was her first time.

I explained to her that I usually see a group of about 10 people combing the ground when I go to the gym about 7:30 AM -- She surmised that they probably got most of the good pickings! I agreed.

Meanwhile even without protective gloves and the use of my shoe, I still managed to coax out a few chestnuts for Wordless Wednesday.

This beautiful butterfly was on a nearby flower ..

Once my mother bought chestnuts and tried to roast them. They exploded all over the oven-!!!
So I looked online to find out exactly how to roast fresh chestnuts- I found this great tutorial by Tory Avey
How to Roast and Peel Chestnuts- which helped me understand why my mother's exploded

I look forward to your comments! 
Do you have a chestnut recipe, story, or comment- leave it in the comments
(if you are reading this in your email, you will need to click on the gray title to be taken to my actual blog post and then scroll down to the comments and click..)

Will be shared on shared on Beth Fish Reads Wordless Wednesday  Create With Joy 
Wordless Wed on Tuesdays wordless on tuesday http://thesimpleyear.com/, 

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ClaireJustine linky 
West Metro Mommy  
Create with Joy 
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