Castanha
It couldn't be any other way, the first blog from Vall’doAido had to be about the noble product, the CHESTNUT. The Martaínha chestnut being the first product we marketed in our humble company!
“It is presumed that the chestnut tree originates from Asia Minor, the Balkans, and the Caucasus, accompanying the history of Western civilization for over 100,000 years. Along with pistachios, chestnuts provided an important caloric contribution to prehistoric humans who also used them to feed animals. The chestnut we eat is, in fact, a seed that appears inside a burr (the fruit of the chestnut tree). But, although it is a seed, like walnuts, it has much less fat and much more starch (a carbohydrate), which gives it other possibilities for use in food. Chestnuts actually have about twice the starch content of potatoes. They are also rich in vitamins C and B6 and a good source of potassium.Considered today almost as a seasonal "treat," chestnuts were once a nutritious dietary supplement, replacing bread in its absence when the harshness and scarcity of winter set in. Boiled, roasted, or turned into flour, chestnuts have always been a very popular food, whose use dates back to Prehistory.
Text extracted from Wikipedia
It is known that there are at least 12 species of chestnuts. Our choice was the Martaínha chestnut, as they are sweeter, tastier, shinier, and much easier to peel.
YOU'VE SURELY READ OR HEARD ABOUT DOP, DO YOU KNOW WHAT IT MEANS….
When a product has the DOP (Protected Designation of Origin) certification, it means that this product is genuinely from a specific place or region and its quality or characteristics are particularly or exclusively due to a geographical territory, with processing and production occurring in these duly identified locations.
In the case of chestnuts, there are 4 DOP regions in Portugal:
DOP- Castanha da Padrela
DOP – Castanha da Terra Fria
DOP – Soutos da Lapa
DOP – Castanha do Marvão
Chart of florestas.pt
Our Martaínha chestnut originates from Sernancelhe and is a DOP – Soutos da Lapa!
DID YOU KNOW...
Every year, between May and July (depending on the species), chestnut trees bloom and these flowers are followed by burrs.Do you know what the flower of chestnut trees is called???
AMENTILHOS
...and did you know that first come the male catkins and later the female catkins... very interesting, isn't it? ...but we'll leave this topic here.
THE FINE ART OF ROASTING CHESTNUTS...
With the arrival of Autumn/Winter and the cold, how could we not want a good roasted chestnut? Portugal has a tradition of roasting chestnuts on the street with charcoal, which makes them white as a snowball... and we wanted to bring this tradition and promote it here in Switzerland.
To not miss any detail of the tradition, the roaster was handcrafted in Portugal and imported for this purpose.
Our method of roasting chestnuts (I call it art) was very well received here in Switzerland! The big question that arose for most people was how the chestnuts were so white and had such a special taste... to which I replied that these were some of the true flavors of "our little corner" of Portugal without revealing the mystery!
It was a success and more than that, they asked me to continue the tradition, which made me extremely proud. So until then...