North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Rooting" <rooting@hortus.com>]

I do not hink that the beech nut is a crop which you will find in a health
food shop

Beechnuts are triangular in shape and are born in small burrs. These burrs
are shed in late summer. The nuts fall to the ground over a period of
several weeks and they deteriorate within two weeks unless harvested and
dried. The kernels are inside the shells and constitute 46% by weight of the
nut. As you can see, over half the nut is shell. American grown beechnuts
are seldom collected for food because of their small size, their poor
development to a mature nut in the shell (partial voids), and the difficulty
of harvesting in such a short period of time.

There is a Black Beech grown in Kentucky that has nuts that are black and
about twice the size of the ordinary beechnut. When these are oil roasted or
dry roasted, the nuts have an excellent quality and there are many ways to
eat them.

More common us of the beechnut is the gathering and the extraction of oil
from them by a pressing process. Beechnut oil is used in cooking and also as
a salad oil. Sometimes it is used as a butter substitute. This is more
common in France.

Mostly, however, the beechnut of America is grown for the beauty of the tree
and for the abundant supply of the nut for wild animals.

European beech, used as an oil source and is also edible

If you are realllly interested in purchasing beech tree seeds then contact
Lawyer Nurseries: http://www.lawyernursery.com
they have seed of FAGUS ORIENTALIS(Oriental Beech) for re-forestation use.
also
Shefields http://www.sheffields.com has FAGUS grandifolia, American Beech.
Two pounds are only $136.31 (plus shipping) at 1,498 seeds per pound.
At that price you might want to dip them in chocolate and serve with fresh
ripe strawberries and fine French champagne

regards
MRK


----- Original Message -----
From: "markl" <markl@nytec.com>
To: <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Saturday, August 17, 2002 2:47 AM
Subject: [NAFEX] beech nuts


> I went to our local arboretum in search of
> beechnuts.  I found a number of beech tree species
> represented in the collection, but no sign of nuts.
> What's going on.  Did the squirrels beat me to the
> harvest, or is Seattle a poor place for beech trees
> to produce nuts?  I would be interested in hearing
> about a source of beech nuts for sale (ie for
> snacking).
> -Mark Lee, Seattle
>
>
>