" /> In times gone by chestnuts were often food for the poor and times of famine, and the chestnut forests of Haute Provence along with all the French chestnut forests were somewhat abandoned for many years.
Today, we do not just think of feeding ourselves, but the evolution of taste, a return to natural products, a search for authenticity leads us inevitably towards products such as the chestnut. Even if consumer needs have changed, chestnuts have not, and they will always be an authentic, natural product.
As with all quality regional products, the flavour of the product is strongly attached to its locality. The same goes for the chestnut which has the flavour of its terroir.
Recipe: chestnut cake (Turinois)
Ingredients:
- 500 g chestnuts
- 100 g chocolate
- 100 g sugar
- 100 g butter
Slit the chestnuts.
Boil them 40 min in water.
Leave them in the water while you peel off both skins and mash them with the mouli-grater.
Melt the chocolate with the butter; add the sugar and then the chestnut purée.
Grease a rectangular cake tin.
Pour the mixture into the tin and leave in fridge for 24h before cooking
Events
Chestnut Fair (Fête de la Châtaigne) in Revest du Bion en Haute Provence last Sunday of October
Discovery walk around the chestnut groves, gathering chestnuts, an « autumn flavour » meal, a competition for the recipe for cooking with chestnuts, under the authority of the Confrérie des Amis de la châtaigne.
www.fetedelachataigne.com (in french)
Chestnut Fair (Fête de la Châtaigne) in Le Fugeret in the Haut Verdon late October or early November
Chestnut market, visit of a chestnut grove and demonstration of mechanical gathering.
