As patrons lined up for a late afternoon pastry at Athens Bread Company, Tim McKenna prepped croissants. He pounded on a slab of dough and folded it over a stretched-out sheet of butter to create the pastries鈥� layers.
鈥淕od knows how someone figured out how to do all this but, once you get the hang of it, it鈥檚 just going through all the steps,鈥� he said.
McKenna has owned the bakery for over a year now, and he loves to experiment with new menu items. They don鈥檛 always pay off. But, when he made his first loaf of bread out of chestnut flour last fall, he said it was an automatic autumn hit.
鈥淧eople would line up for it. I couldn鈥檛 get enough flour,鈥� McKenna said. 鈥淚 would order some, make a bunch of loaves, and people would order them all up.鈥�
McKenna originally got the flour from the nonprofit Rural Action鈥檚 Appalachian Staple Foods Collaborative. The organization has spent the last two years figuring out the best way to take chestnuts that Ohio farmers can鈥檛 sell fresh and turn them into something people will actually eat.
Through a , they鈥檙e working with local millers across the state to experiment with new ways to bring their harvest to more Ohioans 鈥� and prove that the crop is more than just a catchy line in a Christmas carol.
New ground
Amy Miller is a third-generation chestnut farmer, who manages Route 9 Cooperative in eastern Ohio. Every fall, her cooperative sells around 100,000 pounds of chestnuts. The group can hardly keep up with the demand.
鈥淲hen we open the online store, we are pretty much sold out within a couple of weeks,鈥� she said.
But around 10 to 20% of the cooperative鈥檚 crop can鈥檛 be sold fresh as culinary chestnuts due to their small size or blemishes.
Before, Miller didn鈥檛 have the right technology to make them into something profitable. Now, they鈥檙e dried, ground up, and processed into everything from pancake mix to chestnut beer to the flour that McKenna uses to make his chestnut loaves.
He鈥檚 bringing the chestnut-flavor baked good back next season, partially because it鈥檚 popular and partially, because it connects to Athens鈥� past.
鈥淐hestnuts used to be the biggest tree in this area,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hey were the kings of the forest around here, until blight knocked them out. So, to me, it's this kind of lost piece of our history.鈥�
A climate-smart crop
This history is part of what Michelle Ajamian, network manager of Appalachian Staple Foods Collaborative, said makes investing in chestnut farming and processing so important.
When the region lost its chestnut trees, Ajamian said it also lost a great economic opportunity. Eastern Ohio doesn鈥檛 have a whole lot of flatland for growing row crops.
鈥淏ut it's ideal for chestnuts. So, it could really help Appalachia, farming, economically,鈥� Ajamian said. 鈥淚t gives us a way to say, 鈥楬ey, there are sustainable ways to get what we need economically and in our diets from the land.鈥欌��
So, Ajamian is connecting farmers like Miller to actual millers, who have the right technology to process those small or blemished 鈥淕rade B鈥� chestnuts.
The way she sees it: the better Ohio鈥檚 tools are for processing chestnuts, the better the market for the crop will be. And that could convince more Ohio farmers to grow something that has a really positive impact on the environment: chestnut trees , and they don鈥檛 disturb the soil the way some traditional row crops do.
鈥淲e need to look for ways that we can divert people's diets and also farm wealth away from these crops that are damaging the water and the soil and contributing to greenhouse gasses,鈥� she said.
The future of chestnuts
Ajamian predicts it might take awhile until these connections translate to a big environmental impact. But, the project has made farmers like Miller hopeful it will at least lead to more chestnuts in local markets this year.
鈥淭hat pancake mix is kind of like a gateway into knowing about chestnuts for people who maybe haven't grown up with that as like a part of their diet,鈥� she said.
Still, Miller said she understands good things take time to grow. That鈥檚 chestnut farming, in a nutshell.
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