The Field Guideby Moss & MarrowThe Field Guideby Moss & Marrow
Also called kastanjes, tamme kastanjes.
In the Netherlands, sweet chestnuts are in season October, at their best in October. After the harvest, Dutch stores carry them until November. In November, Dutch sweet chestnuts come from store or from under glass, not from the field.
Sweet chestnuts drop in October under the big trees in estates, parks and old woods. Horse chestnuts, the shiny conkers, are not edible. In the Netherlands you may pick small amounts for your own use in most forests and along most paths, about a punnet's worth, and never dig up roots or bulbs. Nature reserves, dune areas and many Natuurmonumenten and Staatsbosbeheer sites forbid it, and the sign at the entrance is the rule that counts. Commercial picking is forbidden everywhere.
Sweet chestnuts come in a spiny, hedgehog-like husk, several to a case, with a pointed tip; horse chestnuts have a knobbly green case and one round nut.
Starch rather than fat, unlike other nuts, with vitamin C, potassium and fibre.
To get the most: Roasting keeps more vitamin C than long boiling; fresh chestnuts go mouldy within a week or two, so eat or freeze them.
On our nutrient density chart, a normal serving of roasted chestnuts (85 g) gives about a third of a day's vitamin B6 and about a fifth of a day's vitamin C, counting what your body absorbs. Phytates lock away part of the iron and zinc, and the score counts that.
Content per NEVO, the Dutch food composition database. This describes what the food contains, not what it does for you.
Score, roast twenty minutes, peel while hot. Or simmer and purée.
Sweet chestnuts are picked, not bought. The Field Guide lists producers, so it has no entries for a wild food; the page is here so the season and the rules are in one place. Elsewhere on the site, the map shows the farms and shops near you.
Dates read on 2026-10-12. If a window on this page is wrong, tell us with a source.
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