Chestnuts roasting on an open fire

Born and raised in the big city of Chicago, I only saw chestnuts around the Christmas season. Most people used them as decorations, some roasted them and ate them, but it was more a novelty. Here in the Tuscany region of Garfagnana, chestnuts or Castanea are extremely important in this area. The poet Giovanni Pascoli called the chestnut tree: “The bread tree”.  I think the reason it is so important to this region is because most locals can walk up the hills into the forest and collect chestnuts that have fallen from the trees. There are literally hundreds upon hundreds of them lying around the woods and surrounding street. When you have a free food source, you can find lots of ways to use them. The local chestnut flour is called farina di neccio, people make bread, polenta, crepes, pies and cookies from the flour. But I have also had the chestnut beer, it's very good, it has an interesting flavor. I think I'll stick to the regular light beer for now. Luckily, our neighbor has a chestnut roasting gizmo. We were able to enjoy fresh roasted nuts right off the fire.