We have this tree growing in the front yard that the squirrels are going to town on - are these edible chestnuts I can roast? I think there may be a cousin plant that looks similar but not edible so I just wanted to check with you experts to be sure! We live in Toronto, Ontario TIA
No, they're not real chestnuts, even though the common name is "horse chestnut". They're not even in the same family. I remember how disappointed my father was one year when he tried to roast them and the house smelled so terrible. That being said, I saw Chinese people in Seattle one year collecting them and insisting that they ate them. I forget if they boiled them or what. We just figured it was some cultural thing we weren't going to know about. But they're not the real deal. Look up Castanea to see how the leaf arrangement differs from the palmately compound leaves (several leaflets that radiate from the same point) of this tree (Aesculus hippocastanum).
You can actually grow the fresh edible Chinese chestnuts that you purchase in the super markets - I bought some almost 2 years ago around Christmas time that were starting to sprout in the store. I planted them in pots in the house and then put the saplings outside in the spring of 2015; now I have 3 trees growing in my back yard. They are zone 4 - 5 so you should be okay.
