Inspirational Chestnut Madness !!!

With all the festive cheer lets find out about something which when not prepared correctly and then tried to be cooked causes SEVERE pain and in some cases broken windows !!!!

Let's stand tall and find out all the facts you may ever need to know about the trusty Chestnut.

The largest known chestnut tree in the world is called Hundred Horse Chestnut and is growing in Sant'Alfio on the east slope of Mount Etna, in Sicily. This mighty tree has a circumference of 57.9 m when measured in 1780!!! Above-ground the beast has split into many trunks, but below-ground, these trunks share the same network of roots.

This tree is believed to be 4,000 years old. The name originated from a legend that the queen of Aragon and her company of one hundred knights were caught in an ultra severe thunderstorm that was ripping through Mount Etna. They huddled their entire company under this one tree to save themselves from the harsh weather; some etched their names into the trunk which can be still seen to this day!!!

The chestnut tree tends to stop fruiting North of the fifty-second parallel. (Wow) This means In Eurasia, the hypothetical line is drawn from Brittany to Belgrade down to Trabzon, in Turkey.

In Africa, chestnuts grow only in the Maghreb. In North America, were many chestnut trees before the first half of the twentieth century; a sudden blight struck and wiped out over three billion trees were destroyed.

Chestnuts are somewhat different than most nuts as they contain very little traces of fat and protein. In fact, the trusty chestnuts are an ultra great source of carbohydrate (50%) and water (45%).

Legend has it Roman soldiers were given chestnut porridge before entering the battle to fill their bellies ready for the barbaric fight.

An old Corsican wedding tradition states to prepare 22 different chestnut dishes and serve them on the day of the wedding. Wow, can you even think of 22 different dishes ???

Chestnut and wheat contain the same amount of carbohydrates. Level of starch is two times higher in chestnut than in potato. (Wowza)

Leaves and the husk of the fruit is used in the cosmetic industry for the production of shampoos and other items that aid beauty.