Long before the Pilgrims arrived on the Eastern shores and Captain John Smith explored the Chesapeake Bay, the American chestnut tree stood as a mighty monument, many over 100 feet tall, their trunks measuring six or seven feet in diameter. A colossus of the Eastern forest, the chestnut tree would often measure twenty feet in circumference around the trunk. Photographs taken in the early 1900's with people standing at the base of one of these trees make the humans look like miniature specimens. There's an old saying that the chestnut forests were so thick a squirrel could jump from chestnut tree to chestnut tree from Georgia to New York without ever touching the ground.

Hardy though the mighty chestnut tree was, it fell prey to the deadly fungus, Cryphonectria parasitica, from trees imported from Japan. In 1904 the first infected trees, about 1,400 of them, were found in New York City along the avenues of the Bronx Zoological Park. Mycologist William A. Murrill of the New York Botanical Society, named the fungus Diaportha parasitica as the culprit. When he published his evidence in 1906, he wrote that the destructive blight had affected chestnut trees in New Jersey, Maryland, and Virginia. The name of the pathogen evolved over time to become Endothia parasitica in 1912 and Cryphonectria parasitica in 1978. This virulent fungus instigated one of the most devastating natural disasters in the history of American forest biology.

An innovative breeding program began with crossing the blight-resistant Chinese chestnut with the American chestnut, to create trees with 50-50% Chinese-American qualities. The next step was to backcross those trees with American chestnut trees, producing trees that were 75% American. Another backcross resulted in American trees that were totally blight resistant and retained their original characteristics. Today, we are grateful when chestnuts are available, because they can be difficult to obtain.

To roast the chestnuts, make a crisscross cut on the flat or domed side of the chestnut with a sharp, firm paring knife. Place the nuts on a baking sheet and roast at 375 to 400 degrees for about 20 minutes. Test for tenderness by piercing through the cut side with a fork. Peel with a firm, sharp paring knife, taking care to remove the dark brown inside skin.

A unique roasting method is sand-roasting, a method suggested by Dr. Jasper Woodroof. Fill a skillet half-full with sand and apply high heat to make the sand very hot. A handful of pierced chestnuts embedded into the hot sand will roast in about 12 minutes.