Kastanan Wood

Grc: κάστανον - En: Chestnut

The kastanan tree, known today as the European Chestnut (Castanea crenata), is native to Hellas produces high carbohydrate nuts and a beautiful, rot-resistant wood. It is also a major source of tannin for tanning leather. The tree is associated with the city of Kastanis on the eastern side of the Black Sea, and various other towns called Kastanis after other local chestnut forests.
The kastanan tree is also known as the bread tree, because its nuts form a staple of diet that often takes the place of bread among the poor. Cultured trees produce large, sweet-flavored nuts called marronia or Zeus acorns, while a smaller wild type produce kastagna nuts, which are less sweet and more difficult to peel. Marronia are a high quality food source with the nutritional makeup of a grain, but requiring no annual tillage of the soil over centuries of production. They can be stored over winter, making them an all-season food source.
Marronia are also an important food for livestock. The nuts are fed to hogs and cattle during the winter, and the animals are put out into the orchards after harvest to clean up what's left over. Marronia consumption by animals imparts a sweet flavor to their meat, and marronia-fed pork is especially considered a delicacy. Kastanan leaves are also nutritious fodder for animals, and dried leaves are used as animal bedding.
Kastanan trees are coppiced for various uses. When the tree is cut, the stumps send up multiple sprouts very readily and are harvested at various cycles depending on the use. Vineyard trellises and stakes are cut after only 2-3 years, fence posts after 10-20 years, whereas saw logs are cut on a 50-70 year basis.

Properties

Material Characteristics

The trees can grow to about 30 meters tall and are streight like columns with wrinkled gray bark. Nuts are white within a shiny dark brown outer husk and a thin lighter brown inner skin. One to three nuts are contained within yellow-green spike-covered capsules called burrs.

Physical & Chemical Properties

Kastanan wood has up to 20% tannin content, the highest of all tree species. This makes the wood extremely rot resistant. Kastanan trees, especially when grown in forest settings, grow straight and make excellent lumber which can be cut into durable straight-grained planks or easily split for fencing and posts. A naturally rot-resistant kastanan fence post can last in the ground for 50 years, then be turned over for another 50 years.

Geology & Geography

Forests grow mainly in mountainous regions.

History & Usage

Everyday use

Marronia

Marronia can be eaten fresh after the harvest, stored for later consumption, dried for still later consumption, then ground into a sweet tasting flour and added to soups, stews, polentas, cakes and breads. Dried marronia will last a year, providing food all the way to the next harvest. They are also fed to animals.

Kastanan Leaves

Kastanan leaves have up to 95% tannin and high amounts of Vitamin K. Teas made from the leaves are a cure for respiratory diseases such as whooping cough, and mixed with thyme makes a powerful medicinal syrup that is used to treat cough, diarrhea, backache and intoxication.

Kastanan Flowers

Tea made from kastanan flowers is supposed to cure sinusitis. An extract made with ethanol from chestnut leaves and nuts has many pharmacological activities.

Kastanan Milk

Milk made from ground chestnuts is used as a lactose free alternative for children.

Kastanan Honey

Kastanan honey, in addition to its purported ability to enhance libido, is used in treating gastritis and liver problems.

Tannin

Tannin is extracted from the wood for use in the tanning industry, for dyeing leather, and in the production of varnish and other products. The wood is finely ground and the tannin leached from the wood by soaking in water.

Kastanan Bark

Kastanan bark can be used as shingles for siding on houses.

Refinement

Marronia grow inside spiny capsules called burrs. These are harvested by hand, by raking the nuts and burrs into piles in the mountainside orchards. The nuts and burrs are then transported by mule and cart to the homesteads. Placed on the cool north side of a building, the nuts and burrs are covered with a layer of green chestnut leaves and can be stored for several months.
To dry the nuts for longer storage, the nuts are placed on a raised ventilated floor of special buildings, where a kastanan wood fire is kept lit below, and the warmth and smoke from the fire slowly dries out the nuts. Once dry, the burrs can be easily removed. To cook with these nuts, they simply have to be re-hydrated again by boiling in water. The dried nuts can also be ground into flour with stone mills. The smoky sweet flavor is excellent, as the carbohydrate turns to sugar as the nuts dry.

Manufacturing & Products

Because of its rot resistance, kastanan wood is used for ship-building, bridge timbers, exterior siding, barn and house posts and beams, flooring, doors, windows, exterior trim and any other area that are exposed to the weather. Kastanan coppage is made into rail fences, fence posts, vineyard trellises, water well-casings, wine casks, barrels, baskets, and furniture.

Byproducts & Sideproducts

Kastanan forests also provide other delicacies. A number of edible mushrooms grow in association with kastanan trees, including truffles, porcinis (Boletus edulis) Ogygian mushroom (Amanita casearea), chanterelles (Cantarellus) and Russula mushrooms.
Honey made from kastanan blossoms is not very sweet, but has an intense, distinctive and astringent flavor. It is considered an aphrodisiac by some. Beekeepers depended on kastanan, as the trees flower late after many of the other tree species have finished.
Kastanan trees and grapes can be cultivated together to provide both food and wood on steep sloped mountainous regions.

Hazards

Eating too many marronia can give you gas.

Type

Wood