Chestnuts...who knew?

While in Nauvoo, we were walking around the church grounds when we came across several tree's with spiky balls. We couldn't figure out exactly what they were, so after a guided tour through Brigham Young's home was asked the sweet Sister Missionary if she could identify a few of the unique plants we had seen around the area. She pointed out the window towards some of the tree's we had looked at and told us they were chestnut tree's. She told us that we could go gather some of the nuts and informed us of the best way to roast them.

We later went outside to further investigate and sure enough, once you broke open the prickly ball of thorns (which was not an easy task to do) there sat a clump of several chestnuts. Some balls only contained one or two chestnuts and others had three or four.

 

 

Dave and my Grandma broke open several of the spiky balls that were laying on the ground and gathered as many chestnuts as their hands could hold. Maybe I have live a sheltered life, but I had no idea chestnuts grew in prickly balls like this! Fascinating...

 

Dave and my Grandma showing off their loot!