Chestnuts 🌰
Chestnuts signify a time of great memories with family & friends. It’s the crop of connections and stories. It always brings us together in a circle around a bonfire🔥. Always eaten together, never alone. It’s a shared experience of serving and being served. The amount of love and labor that goes into it until it reaches our mouths is merciless.
I remember my uncle scoring it 1 by 1 and roasting it on flaming charcoal. Then my parents cracking it open, one for them to eat then one for me. What also adds to the the depth of the experience is the surprise element of opening each one not knowing if it was a good catch or one thats filled with mold.
As I’m writing this, I keep remembering more and more memories around chestnuts. All of which include lots of love 💕 , laughs, and warmth 🤗 .
The chestnut 🌰 has become a part of my time capsule of memories around Switzerland + 🌎.
Zurich 📍
The absolute best chestnuts I have ever had was in Lucern, Zurich. I remember my mom got one bag for all 5 of us and it disappeared in less than 5 minutes. We all ended up going back to get our own goody bags.
Geneva 📍
I was recently on a business trip to Geneva with a group of 9 friends walking in the middle of the street at midnight looking for a late-night snack. It was a fun trip, but believe it or not, what stood out to me the most during this trip was something unexpected. It was a chestnut tree 🌳 on Quai des Bergues street. As we were walking, dancing, and singing, we stumbled upon a pile of chestnuts scattered on the ground. I looked up and realized WAW 🤩 I have never seen a chestnut tree. I didn’t even know that chestnuts 🌰 grow on trees, let alone in the middle of the city. We all gathered around and started picking the clean and shiny ones. At first, it was weird to me, I never thought about getting chestnuts in a place other than a grocery store 🏬. I was programmed that way, forgetting that the actual source of our food is all around us in nature.
Many of the chestnuts were either dried up, or have been squished by people’s footsteps. I thought, how dare these people step on such gems. I realized that I’ve come from a place where chestnuts are expensive and rare to find, and that’s why it was an “aahaaa” moment for me.
Even on the ground, they looked so luxurious and sophisticated. Their deep oaky brown shade, the shiny and smooth touch surface made it sparkle like a diamond 💎. I picked up a couple as a souvenir and some others to roast at home 😛. I still have one in my winter jacket 🧥. Now every time I put my hands in my pockets, it takes me back to that moment of utter bliss and aww. I use it as a reminder to look around, open my eyes 👀 to the world for what it is.
Montreux 📍
There is nothing better than a bag of chestnuts on a cold and windy day in. Montreux.
Coming here every time just puts my eyes into complete AWWWW 😍 as I walk past Lake Geneva, hearing the water swish 🌊, the birds twinkle🕊 , the ducks quacking 🦆, and the fish splashing 🐟 on the surface of the water just puts all my senses into a sugar rush of happiness & elevated emotions.
Its so cold, I’m wearing so many layers. 2 layers from the bottom, 3 layers from the top, a winter puffer jacket 🧥 , Ugg boots 👢 , Ugg gloves 🧤, and finally an oversized scarf 🧣 to cozy me up and keep me warm and contained.
Imagine with all of these layers, I still crave warmth. So I go to the chestnut 🌰 stand, and warm up my hands a little with his grill until he prepares my order. I enjoy talking to the guy at the stand because it’s a genuine one. He doesn’t speak English and I don’t speak French so just imagine how our conversations go 😂. We exchange appreciation through eye contact, laughs, smiles, spirits, and try to gather words from each other’s languages to somehow form sentences in our ways. It’s a brief 3-minute interaction but I look forward to it every time because again, chestnuts 🌰 are about stories and connection. We chat for a couple of minutes as he assembles my 150g bag of chestnuts, and voila the magic ✨moment… Love in my hands 😍!
I use my right hand to eat, and keep a glove on my left hand to hold the paper bag so that my fingertips don’t freeze 🥶.
The bag is so convenient to eat on the go. There are 2 pockets, one for the chestnut and another for the peeled outer shell. I put my hand in the bag, pick a chestnut, put it in the center of my palm, and close my fingers into a fist to absorb its warmth. I then squeeze my fist to crack it open ‘craackkkk’ I peel it and bring it out gently in one piece. I then look at it 🧐to check that it’s clear of any fungus. Then finally, I bite into it and absorb the warmth 🔥.
It flakes then turns into a buttery sensation that coats my mouth and just makes me close my eyes and say “mmmmmmmmm 😋”. I continue indulging them as I’m walking past lake Geneva.
It’s a mesmerizing walk🚶🏼♀️. All the shades of blue reflected on the water from the cloudy sky ☁️. The green mountains 🏔 surrounding the borders of the water with snow ❄️ crawling down the mountain tips. Just beautiful ✨.
The warmth that the chestnut 🌰 smothers me with makes me appreciate God’s creation and tingle’s my curiosity and keeps me wondering 💭
1. Why do certain crops grow in the winter and others in the summer?
2. If we pay enough attention we understand that God has designed an interconnected ecosystem that is balanced by local and seasonal products that provide our bodies with the necessary nutrients throughout different seasons of the year. Although this is not something we live by due to all the new technological advancements, we shouldn’t have watermelons in the winter and avocados year-round. Realalistlicly it makes no sense if we want a healthy balanced body.
3. It also made me realize that many health gurus today talk about eating local organic food. That’s one of the reasons behind it. It’s a full circle ⭕️ meticulously studied and executed by God’s creation so let’s respect and obey that.
Finally, there are somethings that just add to our stories regardless of where we go in life and I just realized that chestnuts 🌰 brings me physical, emotional, and spiritual warmth and happiness😊.