Welcome all to my first ever STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics) post here on #stemgeeks.
I was excited to discover that 
My background is a scientific one, majoring in conservation biology, and i would like to do some posts here in regards to that. Today I will do a rather light post/blog to try it out and then I will do some more in depth pieces to be preserved forever on the blockchain.
I hope you get something out of it and maybe even learn a thing or two!
Today, I want to share with you the difference between edible (sweet) and poisonous (horse) chestnuts.
We have two of these humongous chestnut trees next to our house and I thought it would be fun to collect some of the chestnuts with the kids today. Unfortunately, the are not sweet chestnuts so we cannot eat them, but we still had fun along the way!
Notice the spikes of the shell, they are fairly spaced out and short; also, you can easily pick them up with your bare hands. These characteristics are a dead giveaway that it is a horse chestnut and poisonous.
Mid-September is typically when you can begin to harvest chestnuts. Make sure they have already fallen to the ground and it is even better when the outer shell has begun to crack. Open them up and remove the nuts and set them out for a day or two before you cook them. This allows some of the starch inside to convert to sugar and gives it more of a sweet taste. Make sure you don't wait too long (under a week) or they will taste bitter.
To my knowledge, Chestnut trees are only native to the United States, don’t quote me on that, so I will keep my eye out for any Sweet Chestnut Trees here in Germany.
The green bark on these tree limbs are really fascinating to me. I have never seen anything like it before and Chestnut is a good hardwood so I gathered some for our fireplace.
A hard days work of harvesting non-edible chestnuts is done! I think the kids had a lot of fun and maybe even learned something! Hope you did too!
Have a good weekend everybody!
@balticbadger