U-Pick Chestnut Season Has Arrived in Michigan

Here's why chestnuts grow better in Michigan than any other state.

We love fall u-pick season in Michigan-- everything from apples to peaches to pumpkins, but did you know we have a thriving chestnut industry?  Yes! Chestnuts in Michigan.

Get our free mobile app

According to The Detroit Free Press, Michigan is the #1 state for chestnut production in the nation.

When most people think of chestnuts they think of "The Christmas Song" which famously mentions "chestnuts roasting on an open fire", but today we have chestnut flour, chestnut butter, and even chestnut beer! However, there's actually a special secret about Michigan's chestnut trees:

For some reason Michigan's chestnut crop is resistant to the highly contagious chestnut blight.

Before American landscape artist S.B. Parsons introduced the Japanese chestnut into his nursery in 1904, the United States had a thriving chestnut crop with one in every four hardwood trees in the Eastern U.S. being an American chestnut. However, Parsons unknowingly introduced a contagious fungus known to destroy the trees which some refer to as,

The greatest ecological disaster to ever strike the world’s forests

While Parsons may have designed such notable landmarks as Union Square in New York City and Balboa Park in California according to Planet Detroit,

Parsons is infamously remembered for bringing the chestnut blight to the United States.

However, for some special reason chestnut trees thrive in Michigan and it's a modern medical marvel!

Michigan State University professor and a plant pathologist Dennis Fulbright has been researching the true nature of Michigan's chestnut trees and has discovered Michigan is home to the only chestnut trees with a naturally occurring biological control. While the trees in Asia have evolved to resist the fungus, the same cannot be said for North America's chestnut trees-- except in Michigan.

Chestnuts add a rich, buttery, nutty flavor to soups and other dishes and are in season from late September to mid-October. However, with the dry weather we're enduring here in West Michigan this fall, local farms say the season in going fast!

Find u-pick chestnut stands across West Michigan including:

• Winkel Chestnut Farms - Coopersville (u-pick)
• Vriezema Chestnut Farm- Jamestown (u-pick)
• Dekliene Orchards - Hudsonville