Old Chestnuts

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Here I am uploading a picture from Porto Ceresio in Italy. John Harlin

Houses like this one used to be homes for several families living side by side in the same building. John Harlin

The Americo name is common here, reflecting the late 19th century when many young men emigrated to the United States. John Harlin

Our bikes and packs went up the lift without us. John Harlin

A chestnut found on the trail. John Harlin

And then we found chestnut beer on Monte Lema. Dale Bechtel

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Biking up the hillside toward Monte Lema, we noticed chestnuts on the ground.

Too bad it is illegal to pick them up. Or at least it would have been in the past, when chestnuts were so precious for their protein that you were only allowed to pick up nuts from your own trees. Until the early twentieth century this Malcantone region of Ticino (and elsewhere in Ticino as well) was so poor that the only source of protein for much of its population were chestnuts. They were ground into flour and roasted and made into anything and everything. The food value was high but so was the tedium. These days young people are trying to revive the old chestnut culture, but the old people who actually ate them will have none of it. The memories are too painful.

Times are much easier now. For example, we are now eating ice cream in Migleglia while our bikes and packs are being carried up Monte Lema in a gondola lift so that we can walk to the top without weight on our backs. Was looking for chestnut-flavored ice cream, but couldn’t find any.