Not only can new beech trees be grown from beechnuts, you can also use them in the kitchen. Collecting them in the forest or park is a bit tedious, but it's worth it because you can rarely buy the nutrient-rich fruits.
When and how is it best to collect beechnuts?
Collecting beechnuts is ideal in September, as copper beech trees drop their nuts in this month. Look for trees older than 40 years and use dustpans and hand brushes to collect the fruit. Then clean and roast or scald them to neutralize toxins.
Identifying beechnuts
Beechnuts are triangular nuts that come from the common beech tree.
They can be recognized by the spiked shell in which the triangular nuts are located. These are covered by brown skin and white inside.
Sometimes there are only seeds under the tree because the shell has torn open and is still hanging on the tree.
The best time to collect beechnuts
Common beeches shed their nuts in September and can easily be picked up. Only trees older than 40 years develop fruit.
Beech trees only produce an abundant harvest every five to seven years. In the years in between they only produce small quantities.
Since many of the fruits are dead nuts, i.e. do not contain seeds, you will need a lot of nuts if you want to bake cakes from them or plan to plant a beech tree.
Preparing collected beechnuts for the kitchen
- Cleaning beechnuts
- Remove from the shell
- Roasting
- or scald with water
Since beechnuts are slightly poisonous, you must roast the fruits or scald them with hot water. This neutralizes the toxins fagin and hydrogen cyanide. You can then eat the nuts safely.
Beechnuts only get their typical aromatic taste when they are roasted.
Sorting out beechnuts for sowing
Even if you only want to grow one beech tree for the garden, you will need several beechnuts.
Many of the nuts are hollow and do not contain seeds.
To sort out seedable fruits, place the beechnuts in a tub of water. The filled nuts sink to the ground. Pigeon nuts float at the top and can easily be picked up.
Tips & Tricks
If you want to collect larger quantities of beechnuts, take a dustpan and a hand brush with you into the forest. This allows you to uncover the corners under the tree and sweep them up with the dustpan. Be careful not to disturb the soil too much. At home, the corners just have to be cleaned of leaves, sticks and dirt.