American chestnuts may be coming back to the market. Chestnuts used to be a popular staple in American diets, but an invasive fungus almost wiped out the trees in the first half of the 1900s. Now, a farm in Minnesota is growing a new form of hybrid chestnuts that have been engineered to incorporate the blight-resistant properties of the Chinese chestnut with American chestnut tress.
The chestnut trees begin producing nuts 10 years after planting. Researcher Philip Rutter, who has planted as many as 40,000 chestnut trees, is already selling his seedlings online and his crop to local restaurants around the Twin Cities.
The local food movement has increased sales of chestnuts in recent years, reported Washington Times. Full Story