I grew up on a mountain in western NC, we had a little grove of chestnut trees. Have you ever seen a chestnut (🌰) raw off the tree? They’re covered in a VERY POKEY outer seed shell and to open them, i would use my feet, specifically the sides of my sneakers (often getting poked in the sides of my feet. Ouch!) on either side of the seed seams and pry them apart, to reveal the perfectly fitted chestnuts (3-5nuts) on the inner seed bed that is lined with a criminally soft ‘velvet’-like blanket made just to cradle the multiple nut inhabitants. I’d open chestnuts in the freezing cold for hours for them, piling up the smooth, raw, nuts like a pyramid. I remember getting so much joy out of watching the chipmunks having fun and filling their impossibly accommodating cheeks with the bounty I shared to help them. I miss those days.
