Chestnuts Roasting By An Open Fire

by | Nov 27, 2025 | Foraging, Nature, Trees

As Christmas approaches, nearly every American radio station will play the familiar “The Christmas Song” commonly called “Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire.”

The song was written by Robert Wells and Mel Tormé in 1945 and made famous by the Nat King Cole Trio. Released in 1946 it became a Christmas melody popular for nearly 80 years. A pdf in the Library of Congress has an intriguing story.

Cruel Irony.

Chestnut tree with loosened bark from fungus.

Chestnut blight wiped out Americn Chestnuts all over the East.

For thousands of years Native Americans harvested baskets full of chestnuts. So did Eur-Americans who swept across North America. Nutritious and abundant, chestnuts fed people and wildlife.  Many were, indeed, roasted by open fires and on woodstoves.

The American Chestnut was one of the abundant trees in the Eastern Hardwood Forest.

It was a perfect tree with gorgeous honey colored wood that was strong, lightweight, and easy to work. Chestnut’s abundant nuts fed wildlife and people. Settlers turned their hogs loose into the woods to fatten on them.

Then one of America’s greatest ecological tragedies happened when an imported fungus created a blight that killed nearly every single one of billions of trees. They disappeared from forests and the human diet……almost.

Disease Resistant Options

Rich bought a couple of pounds of edible chestnuts from Iowa’s Stringtown Market and roasted them on our woodstove for a gathering of friends to enjoy. How?

Well, across the world are Chinese, Japanese and European chestnuts. Chinese Chestnuts resist the blight and have been planted here and there. The nuts Rich roasted were either Chinese or a hybrid of a few types.

Personal Connection to American Chestnuts

Growing up in wooded New Jersey Rich remembers fallen trunks of blight killed American Chestnut trees and small trees growing from their roots. They die before maturing enough to produce nuts. Rich’s Dad, Henry Patterson, salvaged wood from fallen chestnuts and fashioned many objects from it. Marion’s father, Les Fellows, remembers gathering chestnuts when he was a child in New Hampshire. He crafted picture frames that we think are from American Chestnut wood. The pictures in the frames are of Hardwick, MA, where Marion lived first out of college. Chestnuts are part of our personal heritage.

Enjoy Edible Chestnuts

Although hard to find in the market edible chestnuts still make delicious fare. Many recipes can be found online. We like plucking them from their shells and eating them right after roasting. Here’s how Rich prepares them:

  • Cover the nuts with water and boil them for at least 15 minutes to soften the hulls and leach out tannin.
  • When they are cool enough to handle, use a stout sharp knife to make an “X” shaped cut on the top of each damp nut.
  • Place the nuts in a cast iron skillet and heat on the woodstove. Watch them carefully and stir occasionally. The idea is to drive off most of the water.

Putting them on a cookie sheet and baking them in an oven also works well.

Then they’re ready to peel and eat.

 

Beware

Edible chestnuts are unrelated to horse chestnuts or buckeyes but the nuts look similar.  Horse chestnuts are toxic. DON’T EAT THEM. Here’s how to tell them apart.

> Horse chestnuts have compound leaves with leaflets that radiate out like fingers on a human hand. Edible chestnuts have single elongated leaves, often with shallow pointed lobes.

> Nuts in tight husks that don’t have porcupine-like spines outside are characteristic of Horse chestnuts. You could call edible chestnut husks “vegetative porcupines.” Prickly!

> Horse chestnut nuts are entirely smooth, while edible chestnut nuts have a “nub” at their end. See the photo with the arrow pointing toward the nub.

Edible Chestnuts have a small nub at the end.

Note the nub.

The Future

Enjoying Edible Chestnuts, Growing Them, and Saving the American Chestnut

We mostly enjoy peeling and eating edible chestnuts as they are. And, they work perfectly in many recipes. A good recipe source is at foodandwine.com.
(search for edible chestnuts)

Many nurseries sell chestnut seedlings. Pure American chestnuts are most likely to thrive when planted outside their native range where the blight still lingers. Many hybrids sold by many nurseries resist the blight. It’s wise to plant them a ways from the house for these  reasons:

  • Blossoms just plain stink. And the trees produce hundreds of “porcupines”. Don’t step on one with bare feet!

For these two reasons, we will never know why Marion’s dad planted the edible chestnuts near the house in New Hampshire.

The American Chestnut Foundation

The American Chestnut Foundation, tacf.org, has worked for years seeking ways to restore this valuable tree. Its website has excellent photos and information.

We hope some day to spend an evening sitting by our woodstove snacking on genuine American Chestnuts while listening to Nat King Cole’s Christmas song. Until then we’ll roast the hybrid Chinese Chestnuts we buy.

Autumn – Changing of the Guard

by | Nov 6, 2025 | Birds, Nature, Trees

Fascinating Changes

Dark-eyed Junco

Juncos migrate south to the Upper Midwest each fall.

“There’s a junco!” Rich exclaimed as he pointed toward the tiny bird on a mid-October Walk. We knew the changing of the guard had happened.

Sighting the first junco each fall is, for us, a sign of the changing of the guard. They arrive for the winter at about the same time house wrens depart Iowa for warmer locales down south.

Changes in both bird species are fascinating to watch. On the same walk that we spotted the junco we saw dozens of robins. Unlike wrens and juncos, robins aren’t ambitious migrants. Come spring they cavort on lawns and love suburbia, but when the weather cools, they pack up and move to nearby orchards and brushy places that offer dried berries to eat through the cold winter.

We like watching birds, but we’re not serious birders. Serious enthusiasts will drop whatever they’re doing and drive a couple of hundred miles to see an unusual bird.  We’re content to sit on our back deck or walk local trails to watch changes in bird numbers and species. We love the changing of the bird guard.

Birds

Geese on the wing

Geese flying

Big changes come in mid-autumn and late winter. Waterfowl are the most obvious “changing of the guard” as they wing overhead on their way back south, or north in the spring. Unnoticed by many people are the earlier migrants like the shorebirds that head south as early as August. Wrens hang around in late summer after fledging but are quieter. Nighthawks and chimney swifts stage to head south. Vultures soar overhead and drift to warmer climes when they need to. Often, we just don’t notice these changes in bird activity until we realize we have not seen a species for a while. Or when we see birds that have been “quiet” for a few weeks, begin to flock.

 

Spring Changes

In late March Robins on lawns, waterfowls calling from aloft, and Vultures circling overhead herald spring’s return. Figuring out when the last junco leaves is tougher as they simply seem to melt away. Often, we’ll ask each other, “Have you seen a junco lately?”  If the answer is “no” they’ve likely left for northern breeding grounds.   In April we anticipate the first wren’s arrival.

Busy Summer Months

April and May are fascinating months as the summer guard arrives. Some, like many warblers, stay just for brief stops to rest and eat. Then they head north. However, orioles, grosbeaks, phoebes, and a few warbler species, stick around all summer to delight us with their songs and color. It is sad when they slip away as summer transitions into fall.

Trees Change, Too!

Many people anticipate the change of tree color and travel to catch “the height” of fall foliage.  In New England these “migrants” are called “leaf peepers.” The come, catch the color, spend money and go back home. Here is one road trip that is worth reading about. Marion is familiar with many of these places in her home territory.

Around here, we notice more color in towns and cities than the countryside as the tree species are more varied. Ashes turn purple or yellow, maples are known mostly for reds and oranges. Yellow Cottonwood leaves dance in autumn breezes before winds strip them off. The driftless area of Northeast Iowa, Southern Minnesota and Wisconsin, and northern Illinois are always worth a jaunt to for color and birding.

Glorious weather of warmer days and cooler nights feel good all around. Fall sports have cranked up. And, there is a longing in the air. When our avian friends slip away unnoticed, we feel slightly bereft. Time is moving on.

Steppping Into Winter Mode

So, the first junco sighting stirs pleasant memories. We find few winter activities are as delightful as sitting indoors embraced by our woodstove’s warmth while enjoying a cup of steaming tea while watching juncos along with, chickadees, nuthatches, woodpeckers, cardinals and bluejays that visit our feeder. The latter here all year and bring joy and color during the drab winter months.

White Mulberry – Trickster Tree

by | Jul 24, 2025 | Foraging, Garden/Yard, Nature, Pests, Trees

The white mulberry is a trickster tree. We match wits with it often at Winding Pathways.
“All Around the Mulberry Bush” may be a kid’s jingle but the tree is an ecological pest with some positive traits.

Our front hedge is an example. It’s a dense growth of privet. Few plants can live in its shade but the mulberry has a trick that lets it thrive. The mature tree craves sunshine to grow to its full height of 75 feet. We wouldn’t think they’d stand a chance growing under our shady hedge. But it has a trick.

White Mulberry Trick

Birds poop out mulberry seeds when they roost in our hedge. These readily sprout, and the tiny tree sends up a skinny stem that quickly grows through the thick, shady hedge branches to emerge into the sunshine above them. We don’t want a mulberry there so we need to frequently clip down their tall leggy stems.

Another White Mulberry Trick

It’s a trickster in another way. Although called the white mulberry, Morus alba, it can have ripe white berries but more often they’re red to purple. Don’t let the color fool you.   And that’s not all. Most trees have leaves of just one shape. Not the white mulberry. It has three common leaf shapes. See the photo. An individual tree can have all its leaves one shape, two shapes, or a mix of the three.

While many people join birds in eating the sweet fruits, it’s an invasive species that seems to take root wherever there’s a bit of bare soil. Then it grows like crazy. Cut it down and the stump sprouts that can grow a couple of feet in a flash.

Range of the White Mulberry

White mulberry trees grow throughout temperate North America and on other continents. Silkworms feast on their leaves, and probably white mulberry trees were introduced around the world to create a silkworm industry. The tree liked living in America but silkworms didn’t. They died out and a hoped-for silk industry never took root here.

Telling Apart the White Mulberry Cousin

Closely related is the native red mulberry, Morus ruba. It’s hard to find and may be declining due to hybridization with the exotic invader. Here’s how to tell them apart:

White Mulberry:  Relatively small leaves. The top surface of the leaf is smooth and often shiny. It grows fast in the sun. Common.

Red Mulberry: It’s more of an understory tree. The fruit is red. The leaves are big – three to seven inches long with a sandpapery textured top surface and somewhat hairy bottom. Uncommon.

Although Red mulberry is native to Iowa we’ve not found any here. All mulberry trees seem to be the white species or hybrids.

Mulberry Tree Benefits

Firewood:  We love burning mulberry wood. It’s an attractive yellowish wood that burns with a pleasant aroma as it gives off lots of heat. For example, a cord of mulberry contains 25.8 million BTUs of energy. In comparison, white oak has 25.7.

Food:  Kids love the sweetness of mulberries. The berries normally ripen in June. Birds also flock to ripening mulberry fruit. They love them so much that they’ll eat mulberries before nearby ripening cherries. So, having a fruiting mulberry can increase a cherry tree’s yield. Mulberries can be eaten fresh and made into pies. We love adding some to our breakfast oatmeal. The fruit’s robust color makes an attractive natural die in drinks. Because mulberry fruit is sweet and rather bland it is excellent when blended with rhubarb or tart cherries.

Native Red Mulberries Are in Trouble

The native red mulberry tree is in danger. It’s uncommon and apparently declining, possibly because it so readily hybridizes with white mulberry. Red mulberries tend to live in small groves in forested, bottomland areas. Look for their large sandpapery feeling leaves. Finding one is a treasure.

White mulberry trees are tricky, but they are plentiful, prolific, and useful. We have a few growing at Winding Pathways. As long as they stay out of our hedge, we like them.

Nebraska’s National Forest

by | Oct 31, 2024 | Nature, Reflections/Profiles, Trees

A  national forest amid Nebraska’s grassy Sand Hills! Yup. Several units of the Nebraska National Forest are scattered about the central and northwestern part of the state.

In the 1990s we drove through miles of grassland with nary a tree in sight and then camped in a sprawling forest of Ponderosa pines and red cedars in the Forest’s Bessey Unit almost dead center in the Cornhusker State. How can there be a forest on land that nature intends to be a prairie?

History

In 1902 University of Nebraska botanist Charlesy Bessey encouraged Forest Service Chief Gifford Pinchot and President Theodore Roosevelt to plant trees and create a forest in the grassy Sand Hills. The nation was facing a lumber shortage and most Americans valued forests over prairies and deserts, so they agreed.

Efforts

Millions of trees were planted close together over the 90,000-acre Bessey Unit. Many grew well; when we visited 30 years ago, they were mature and gorgeous.

Nebraska grasslands and dead trees

Rolling hills along the Loup River.

A fire tower was also built and staffed to watch for fires. Sure enough, fires broke out and killed many of the trees. Fire is an efficient sorter. Grass is highly fire-resistant. Many trees are not.

 

 

Return to Nebraska’s National Forest

Decades later we camped there again in September 2024 and were amazed at the change. Although the Forest Service Campground remains in trees, much of the former forest has quickly returned to grassland, due to several fires.

We saw thousands of dead trees with stacks of trunks piled along the road.

Lesson

Attempting to create a forest in a grassland was an ecological disaster. Over time nature is reclaiming land that should have been managed for what it is – healthy grass sprinkled with millions of wildflowers.

Continued Activity

Nebraska National Forest nursery trees.

Trees grow in the nursery

The Bessey Unit includes a modern nursery where the Forest Service grows trees for replanting on land in the western United States. The surrounding land is a fascinating place to see first-hand the result of past management based on a misunderstanding of the environment.

 

 

 

The campground’s trees were spared fire and remain a shady place to camp for anyone driving across vast Nebraska. Great opportunities exist here for education and enjoyment of the trails. But, it needs maintenance. So does the now abandoned fire tower. For information check usda.gov/nebraska.

Wood Has a Comforting Embrace

by | Jun 20, 2024 | (Sub)Urban Homesteading, Energy Efficiency, Nature, Trees

Connecting With Wood

Although we rarely watch sports on TV, the 2024 Iowa Women’s Basketball team captivated us. With athletic sneakers squeaking up and down the wood floor, Caitlin Clark’s sharpshooting and Hanna Stuelke’s blocks were amazing.

Curved wooden walls of the University of Idaho's new arena

ICCU Arena Photography by Lara Swimmer. Images use restricted. Use by permission only.

About a month after the season, we entered an elite new basketball arena. Neither Caitlin nor Hanna was there, but we bet they’d love playing in a gorgeous new venue crafted mostly of wood. It’s on the University of Idaho campus.

“The arched ceiling beams are strong, beautiful, and crafted of local Douglas Fir and larch,” said Dean of the University’s College of Natural Resources, Dennis Becker, as he guided us through the University’s Idaho Central Credit Union (ICCU) Arena.  It opened in October 2021 after about two years of construction and several more of planning and fundraising.  Remember, this was during the Pandemic!

 

 

 

Modern, Flexible, and Beautiful Venue

After playing in the nearly century-old Memorial Gym and a few years in the massive Kibbe Football Dome, the University sought to create a gorgeous and flexible venue that enabled players and spectators to enjoy the intimacy of a largely wooden building that connects spectators with nature. Building it drew on the college’s academic strengths in forestry and wood technology, architecture, engineering, and athletics.

“Much of the wood used to create it came from the University’s Experimental Forest. In addition to being elegant its beams of laminated wood are sturdy, fire resistant, and gorgeous,” continued Dean Becker.

The Dean later explained that the reason the building feels warm and comfortable may be a concept expressed by Erich Fromm to describe the biological orientation humans have with all that’s alive and vital. Biophilia was expressed by the late Harvard professor E.O. Wilson as an affiliation people have with other life forms and nature as a whole, which is rooted in our biology.

Connecting to Wood

Perhaps biophilia made us feel comfortable immediately after entering the Arena as it does in our Iowa home. In both places, we enjoy being enveloped in wood.

We recently visited friends in their brand-new home. Although functional and low maintenance, something about it was mildly uncomfortable. Crafted almost entirely of human-made products the home had doors of plastic, flooring of artificial planking, and walls of plaster. Even the cabinets were plastic. It lacked wood.

In contrast, our 1947-era home replete with wood feels cozy. Floors are white oak and Douglas fir with beams and rafters of pine, fir, and cedar. Our tables were crafted from red oak and black walnut and on the fireplace mantle is a polished cross-section of an oak crotch and a leaf carved from silver maple wood.

What Is It About Wood?

We love wood. It’s gorgeously individualistic. No two boards are exactly the same. It projects a warm and comforting feeling while having environmental benefits. Sustainably managed forests allow land to continually produce wood forever. It is also easy to reuse or repurpose.

Last winter we hired a company to refurbish our downstairs bathroom of easy-to-clean plastic and vinyl. It functions well, but something about it didn’t feel right. No wood. So, Rich bought a half-inch thick oak board, cut it to fit, finished it with a soft finish, and nailed it to a ceiling beam. That single piece of wood made the bathroom more comfortable.

Whether in a home or the University of Idaho’s Idaho Central Credit Union Arena, the beauty and function of wood make us feel at home.

This is one of a three-part series of blogs stemming from a recent visit to our alma mater, the University of Idaho. The school offers an array of majors and is located in the rolling farmland of the Palouse and nestled below Moscow Mountain.  For information check out uidaho.edu.   Its College of Natural Resources offers majors ranging from wildlife biology to outdoor recreation, and forestry.  It’s where Rich graduated.  Marion received her MS from the Idaho College of Education, which features a variety of degrees, including movement science.  

Invasive Duo – Chinese Lanternfly and Tree of Heaven

by | Mar 21, 2024 | Garden/Yard, Garden/Yard, Trees

Bright! Beautiful! Ominous!

As we walked across a New Jersey parking lot last summer an amazingly colorful, and new-to-us, insect fluttered in front of us. It had a gorgeous creamy white and bright red body covered with black spots.

Identifying it was easy and ominous. It was a Spotted Lanternfly. First found in Pennsylvania in 2014 it likely came to the United States from its native China as a hitchhiker in a crate or box.

It may be a pretty bug but its presence is ominous. It feeds on at least 172 different plant species and is spreading rapidly westward from its start close to the Atlantic Ocean.

Feeding off Another Invasive

What’s somewhat ironic about the lanternfly is the insect’s affinity for another Chinese invasive, the Tree of Heaven or Ailanthus. Although the inch-long insect will eat many different plants it prefers this highly aggressive and fast-growing tree.

Important Contact Information

The Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship is on the lookout for the Spotted Lanternfly. They ask anyone spotting one in Iowa to report it by calling:

l (515)725-1470 or logging onto their website at IowaAgriculture.gov.

How To Reduce the Invasion

A key to reducing this insect’s abundance may be reducing Ailanthus tree numbers. This invasive tree thrives in urban and rural areas, often forming large groves. It displaces native trees, has little commercial value, and now harbors an introduced insect pest.

Winding Pathways encourages anyone with an Ailanthus in their yard to remove it, convert it to firewood if you can, and replace it with a native tree species.  Remember, report any Spotted Lanternflies you spot.