Oct 45 min read

Foraging Diaries - Horse Chestnut - Aesculus hippocastanum

"My conkers, they are shiny things, And things of mighty joy,

And they are like the wealth of kings, To every little boy;

I see the upturned face of each, Who stands around the tree:

He sees his treasure out of reach, But does not notice me.

For love of conkers bright and brown, He pelts the tree all day;

With stones and sticks he knocks them down, And thinks it jolly play.

But sometimes I, the elf, am hit, Until I’m black and blue;

O laddies, only wait a bit, I’ll shake them down to you!

-Cicely Mary Barker - Flower Fairies

Family: Sapindaceae

Botanical Description

Height: Up to 35m

Crown: Ovid and spiky in winter when young, becoming rounded or tall domed

Bark: Reddish Brown to grey-brown, smooth but becoming scaly in large plates, in old trees somewhat shallowly fissured at the base

Buds: In opposite pairs, ovoid, pointed, sharp, very resinous and sticky

Leaves: Palmately lobed (digitate), with five or seven stalkless obovate leaflets, margin coarsely and double serrated

Flowers: April to May. Large terminal panicles, up to 30cm on leafy shoots, four or five petals, white with a yellow or red blotch and longer stamens

Fruit: Globose, ripening in October, prickly case, green but maturing to yellow, opens along three sutures, with one or two flattened globose chestnut brown seeds with a pale brown hilium/scar covering 50% of one side

Status: Deciduous, Non-native, introduced to the UK in 1616 and has since become naturalised

Habitat: Mixed woodland, widely planted as a parkland tree

Distribution: Albania and Northern Greece, especially in the Pindus Mountains

Edible parts: Conkers contain a poisonous chemical called aesculin. Eating a Conker is unlikely to be fatal, but it may make you ill. They are poisonous to most animals too, including dogs, but some species such as deer and wild boar can eat them. Curiously, Conkers are also poisonous to horses despite the tree being named after them.

Also known as The Conker Tree

One of the UK's commonest and most majestic of our broadleaved trees, although the Horse Chestnut is not native to the British Isles it is well known, well recognised and loved, particularly in Autumn when it produces masses of Conkers. By the beginning of the nineteenth century the Horse Chestnut could be found in public parks, suburban streets and on village greens.

The flowers which appear from April to May are a sight to behold too, masses of large white 'candles' adorning the branches. In 1699, Sir Christopher Wren was responsible for the amazing mile-long Chestnut Avenue at Bushy Park, north of Hampton Court, originally intended as a carriage drive for William III. Later on in 1838 Queen Victoria opened Hampton Court to the public and Bushy Park soon became a popular place for picnics, particularly during the months of April and May due to the magnificent blossoming of the trees. Indeed, Chestnut Sunday was established in mid-May and London Transport would advertise the occasion with scenic posters:

The custom had died out by the Second World War. However, it was revived again for Queen Elizabeth's Jubilee in 1977 and is now celebrated on the nearest Sunday to 11th May.

In autumn when the spiky cases crack open to reveal a shiny mahogany coloured nut, the tree assumes a different role entirely. I can remember as a child visiting my Father's parents in the Cotswold's at autumn time, we would stand under a Horse Chestnut tree throwing sticks up to dislodge the spiky cases which would fall to ground, probably hitting a few of those tree elves mention in the Flower Fairy verse above, Sorry. We would then stamp on the cases to reveal their hidden treasures, returning home with at least a Carrier Bag full of Conkers. To then return to school after the break to enter the school yard Conker Championships.

As earlier trees were often planted on private land and estates, the game Conkers is of comparatively recent origin. The rule and rituals of a game of Conkers vary greatly. I remember you would have to face your opponent with your conker ready, hanging on a piece of string. You would then both say together:

"Obbly, obbly, onker,

My first conker,

Obbly, obbly oh,

My first go"

The person to say the rhyme the fastest, would take the first 'shot' You would take turns to strike at the other's Conker until one was completely broken and knocked off the string. The winning Conker would then become a 'oner', if then it was to break a 'fiver' it would absorb that conkers score and become a 'sixer'. The World Conker Championships have been held in the village of Ashton, Northhamptonshire on the second Sunday in October since 1965.

But despite the Conker not being edible, there is another lesser known use for these magnificent mahogany treasures. The fruits and the leaves of the Conker tree have high levels of saponins, which are natural compounds with detergent-like properties, just like Soap Nuts. You can test this by picking a Horse Chestnut leaf adding a little water and rubbing it briskly between your hands, scrunching it as you go, you will soon find, if you have added enough water the leaves will start to produce a foamy substance. This also makes Horse Chestnuts a fantastic ingredient for homemade soap and washing detergent.

Eco-friendly alternatives to household cleaning products have risen dramatically in recent years, personally, I try to use as close to a natural product as possible, due to suffering from eczema exasperated by several of the numerous chemicals, often reaching double figures, found within these products, check the labels of the products you use to see just how many.

Eco-Friendly Horse Chestnut Detergent

Method

Gather your Horse Chestnuts, if they are still in their cases sealed then they are probably not ready, look around the floor below the tree, you should find plenty of ripe horse chestnuts, be careful of the outer yellowy green casing as it is spiky.

Once you have gathered as many as you need (see instructions for amount needed per wash below), making sure you leave plenty for the wildlife that depend upon them, you will need to prepare them to be dried in the oven. This way they can be stored and kept for longer periods, I tried storing fresh Conkers but they ended up mouldy and spoilt.

To prepare the Conkers you will need to break them open, I found the quickest way of doing this was by wrapping them in a tea towel and smashing them with a hammer!

Once they are broken, space them out on an oven tray and dry them for an hour, to an hour and a half in the oven at 150 degrees

Remove from the oven and at this point it should be a little easier them before drying to separate the inners from the shells, this will take a little time, but remove as many as you can, worth doing as I have heard of incidents of the husks causing staining on lighter clothing, so the less the better.

One you have removed as many of the outer shells as you have patience to (which probably won't be all of them), simply store the dried Conkers in an airtight container and use as follows:

Soak 40g of the dried Conkers in 500ml boiling water for 30 minutes, drain and set the liquid aside in the fridge.
Then re-soak the Conkers in 500ml of boiling water, this time overnight, drain and keep liquid in the fridge for up to a week.
The first soaking is said to be suitable for heavily soiled loads, while the second is better for moderately soiled loads. Apparently you can do a third soaking for lightly-soiled loads.
If you miss the smell of your laundry detergent then you can add a drop of your favourite essential oil to the liquid.