Storing Fresh Chestnuts

Washington Chestnut Company has been performing chestnut storage studies for over a decade to help consumers extend the storage of fresh chestnuts. The storage tests have proved to be a great investment. Chestnuts without proper handling usually will not store for more than 2 weeks in the fridge. In our latest storage test we took some chestnut with the first signs of molds/fungus growth and processed them to achieve stable storage of chestnuts until late December from chestnuts harvested in October without the use of magic.

Our goal is to help our customers be successful with chestnuts. Early in our pioneering days of chestnuts, customers would ask us how to best store chestnuts. We reached out to other growers and the scientists of chestnuts and were given some excellent guidance. Overall the guidance resulted in being able to store chestnuts up to 4 weeks. This was great progress as compared to the 2 weeks of storage life we were experiencing.

Here are few things were tried but were not satisfied with the results:

1. Hot water bath warm enough to kill some fungus/models but not hot enough to kill the chestnuts
2. A bleach bath
3. Freezing

Of these three options the bleach bath gave the best results with a resulting storage life of 4 weeks. We felt 4 weeks of storage was not good enough so we continued to try to find a better process. The hot water bath did not help at all, maybe even causing a shortened storage life. Freezing changed the chestnut texture to a mushy mess, making the chestnuts not so good for eating, but great for puree.

After trying many different possible solutions to the storage life extension goal, we can suggest partially drying the chestnuts and then placing the chestnuts in a sealed plastic bag in the fridge.

The partial drying is done by laying out the chestnuts in a single layer on a cookie sheet at room temp until the chestnuts have lost 25 percent of their weight. Put the chestnuts in a sealed container/plastic bag into the fridge. Check on the chestnuts every 10 – 14 days and remove any chestnuts turning black or developing molds. Fresh chestnuts stored following these steps can extend the storage life of the chestnuts for as much as 6 weeks.