chestnut questions

TerminallyShortOfCash

.....I've used the search facility but can't find an answer to my question:

Can you cook and eat conkers?

Are they like regular chestnuts are totally different? i was walking my mums dogs yesterday and found an enormous tree laden with them - spent all last night drooling at the thought of chestnut preserve... :j

thanks

jen
xxxx

moggins

I don't think you can, I remember being told as a child that they were toxic. If anyone knows different I'd be glad to hear it though as we have loads around here too and no one is allowed to play conkers anymore

tru

No, they're different. I can't remember how to tell the difference though.

The is a thread on here somewhere, it's really really old and doesn't show up on the search I'll try and find it now. I may be gone a while..............LOL

tiff

Here's a good link, we cant eat them but horses can!

http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/conkers.html

tru

I found this, posted by Scuzz -

Conkers have big thick cases with spikes that don't really hurt that much to touch, and when opened, the nut is big and round.

Sweet chestnuts come in very very spikey cases, that really will give you a nasty !!!!!! They're generally a lot smaller too. When open, there will be around 1-3 nuts, which are sort of ovally shaped. Peel these with a pen knife if eating them raw, be sure to get the "pith" off too. Or keep the skin on if roasting them.

And this posted by Debt_Free_Chick -

These are sweet chestnuts

And these are horse chestnuts -conkers!

THREAD HERE

thriftlady_2

No ! don't eat them, you'll be ill. Play conkers with them instead

thriftmonster

Definitely not for eating - but ds2 has a recipe for making Viking soap from them in a Horrible History book - how OS is that!!!

Stompa

According to:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A843013

"Conkers, unlike the seeds of the sweet chestnut, are not easily edible, as they contain poisonous saponins, along with aescin, which can cause vomiting and paralysis."

**purplemoon**

You're lucky to find any conkers this year as many of the trees sustained some sort of severe disease back in the summer, stopping them producing conkers and slowly killing them off. I think I heard somewhere that it ranks on the level of the Dutch Elm disease we had many years ago

TerminallyShortOfCash

Thanks all. Reckon I won't be making conker pies then!!!

thriftlady_2

**purplemoon** wrote:

You're lucky to find any conkers this year as many of the trees sustained some sort of severe disease back in the summer, stopping them producing conkers and slowly killing them off. I think I heard somewhere that it ranks on the level of the Dutch Elm disease we had many years ago

OMG :eek: An Autumn without conkers just wouldn't be right. Every October we go and collect carrier bags full. We put them in a big wooden bowl and admire them, then they go mouldy and we chuck them :rolleyes: My sons have already amassed a fair collection though so maybe the problem hasn't affected our part of the world.