The Mighty Chestnut Once Again

 I love trees. Wow. Really? You didn't know that? I wish I could have seen the massive trees that my great grandparents took for granted. The Mighty Chestnut had to be one of those trees. I have heard many great stories of what a great wood this tree provided. They grew to 130 feet tall and over 5 ft wide. Many had clear trunks to 50 feet. In their glory they consisted of 25% of the hardwood canopy in the eastern forest. Sadly in 1904 out of New York a fungus which came from Asia was discovered. The Chestnut blight wiped out more than 4 billion trees. They said massive trunks of dead standing chestnuts scattered the landscape. Once the fungus attacked the tree it was dead in two years.By 1950 the American Chestnut had virtually disappeared.

 Thanks to the American Chestnut Foundation many good folks are trying to bring them back. Through back cross-breeding they have attempted to create a blight free chestnut by crossing the American version with a blight resistant Chinese version. The 6th generation version of this possible blight resistant tree makes it 94% American Chestnut. In 2009 hundreds of these trees were planted in the southern forest areas in undisclosed locations to protect the tests being conducted by the American Chestnut Foundation.

Last year I was very lucky to have been given one of these blight resistant chestnuts. So here it is planted on my property. I can only hope with time and careful attention that this little guy will make it. Wouldn't it be cool to have these trees back once again in our forests for our children's children to enjoy?

If you would like more info on the wonderful efforts to bring these trees back or a way to grow your own Chestnuts contact www.acf.org

I have to end this blog entry showing a crazy egg one of my chickens laid yesterday. It barely fit in the egg carton. 

 Imagine my surprise when cracking this monster egg and two yolks popped out. My first double yolk.