VII International Chestnut Symposium

Producción, conservación y procesamiento de castañas

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Attendants to this meeting will find chestnut trees in Lugo and other areas from Galicia, descendants from survivors from the last glaciation, selected during years and years by the growers to improve nut and timber production. Those selections are our present cultivars, which are the basis of the Geographic Protected Indication “Castaña de Galicia”. Some of those cultivars are still found in the resilient giant trees, some of them up to 15 m of the perimeter, which gives us an idea of how old the tradition of this crop in Galicia is so as the quality of the cultivars selected at that time. The chestnut tree is also part of our landscape and culture.

We know that growers planted chestnuts to produce nuts as staple food before the introduction of the potato and maize from the New World. Chestnut trees were also planted in the surroundings of the vineyards, which were needed for producing poles resistant to humidity to elevate the trunks and the branches from the ground. Moreover, timber was used profusely in the structure of the houses, furniture and fences.