On 10/2/2017 7:22 PM, Frank wrote:
On 10/2/2017 8:03 PM, George Shirley wrote:
On 10/2/2017 5:54 PM, Frank wrote:
On 10/2/2017 4:55 PM, George Shirley wrote:
On 10/2/2017 11:21 AM, Frank wrote:
On 10/2/2017 8:00 AM, George Shirley wrote:
On 10/2/2017 6:33 AM, Frank wrote:
On 10/1/2017 10:30 PM, songbird wrote:
Frank wrote:
...
I'm into chestnut season.Â* I don't save as many but like to
shell and
freeze to use with stuffing turkey. I'll chomp on them in the
evening
with a glass of wine but they last less than 2 months in the
refrigerator as they do not keep like fatty nuts such as peanuts.

Â*Â* i didn't think there were any of those
trees still around any longer?


I hate to leave them for the deer and the squirrels and
saturate my
friends with them.Â* Invited neighbors over today to pick up as
much as
they wanted.

Â*Â* in the days before the fungi they were a major
source of fodder for animals in the forest and
many people would let pigs run to fatten up and
then...


Â*Â* songbird


Mine are Chinese chestnuts.Â* The American chestnut is supposedly
returning and a few years ago I tried a few of these chestnuts
and they tasted the same.Â* I don't think the wood of the Chinese
tree is as good as the American tree.
I have never seen an American chestnut, don't think they grew in
my part of Texas. Have eaten Chinese chestnuts, do they have the
same taste?

George

It's been years since I tasted them.Â* I think taste was same as
Chinese chestnuts and they were slightly smaller.Â* This was at
friends hunting camp in central PA.Â* Guy that brought them in said
they were American chestnuts.

I tried to sell some to local market years ago but they refused as
there is a worm problem.Â* There is a chestnut weevil that I have
never seen but it lays eggs on the hull and they burrow into the
chestnut. I spray with Sevin but can't reach the tops of both trees
and often see a lot of worms.Â* These little buggers can even bore
through a plastic bag.Â* I'm sure I've eaten more than a few.Â* This
year's crop appears clean.Â* You spray for 3-4 weeks weekly about 6
weeks before harvest.
We tried growing everything without sprays, etc. and damned near
died from what all was eating our gardens. Now we just spray and
then wash stuff from the garden. It's hell trying to grown things
"naturally" when the world is full of things that want to screw up
your garden. Particularly when you're close enough to the harbor for
Houston and all the junk the ships bring in. Some have destroyed
crops that have been grown for a very long time. Then the gubmint
says "You can't spray that, it might hurt the atmosphere or
something else." Heck, I used to flag crop dusters as a kid with
just a bandana tied over my face. I think all that "poison" is why
I'm still around, sort of like being petrified or so0mething. VBG

When your trees are fairly isolated from similar trees all the
enemies surround them nearby.Â* I had trouble with apple worms and
fungus when I had apple trees.Â* I used to bicycle past an orchard on
Sunday mornings and saw them spraying.Â* Bet there was not a bug or
fungus within a mile after they were done.Â* I also suspect they did
not have to spray that often as it would take awhile before they were
invaded by surrounding bugs.

Probably same for squirrels when I tried to raise English walnuts.
If an orchard knocked their population down it would take a much
longer time to recover than my trees surrounded by woods full of
squirrels.

I may be a chemist but do not believe in the liberal use of chemicals
but in their judicious use.
I made my living for sixteen years making chemicals, but not the type
you're thinking of, just little stuff like benzene, etc. G After the
16 years as a grunt I moved into management with several different
chemical plants and refineries. We were careful in handling the stuff
and what we sold off to other companies had the proper paper work for
handling them. Unfortunately lots of small companies made really bad
chemicals for bugs, etc. that were two steppers, get a good bit of the
chemical, walk two steps and fall over dead. Like you I am cautious
about any over the counter or home made chemicals and read the
cautions part four or five times. Breathing some of that stuff fifty
years ago or so didn't help my health. Anyone that handles any kind of
chemical, even the ones under the kitchen sink, needs to be fully
aware of what happens if you breath it, drink it, or get it on you. Amen!

No question.Â* I am often telling my wife to be careful with her use of
bleach and need for ventilation when cooking.
I do too, my wife often cooks without turning on the fan over the stove,
goes straight out through the wall. She's an artist, does that ring a
bell about safety? Years ago we lived in a small trailer house and I put
in a fan above the stove in the wall. When we built our first home I
sold the trailer and got an extra $100 bucks due to the fan, which cost
something like ten bucks. In those days I made $2.50 an hour as a top
operator in a chemical plant and ten bucks was a lot of money to us.
Nowadays guys doing what I did in the sixties are making what sounds
like big money but buys about the same amount of grub for us back then.

I am very familiar with toxicology and have worked for years with
toxicologists and their labs.Â* Now retired I have written and been
responsible for thousands of safety data sheets in my consulting.

When working, my company often refused to sell chemicals to companies
that could not handle them responsibly.
I hear that, happily I worked for years for Mobil, then moved on to some
of the larger chemical and refining companies. As a safety professional
I got several people fired for not doing their due diligence and have
pulled wounded and dead out of something that should never have
happened. You teach people the right way to do things and then they go
dumb on you just once and kaboom! I'm glad I'm retired and don't have to
do that anymore. We could certainly throw out some old stories over a
cup of coffee. I go to reunions for a couple of companies, now all
combined with the big boys, and we revisit our youth and some revisit
their foolishness. I'm glad I'm retired.