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There are sweet chestnuts on the ground in the park where I walk the kids to school each day. I love chestnuts but have always bought them from the greengrocer. How can I get to the sweet chestnuts without seriously hurting myself on the spikes. Can I collect the ones on the floor and wait until they open?? Can somebody tell me step by step what I need to do, I'd be really grateful. Thanks.

Strange that nobody has replied to your question

If the husks haven't split across the top, even just a little, then the chestnuts inside are not really ready.
They do get knocked off the trees in windy weather before they are ripe sometimes.
Anyway, the easy way to get them out without pricking yourself too much is the put your feet either side of the prickly husk and gently pull/squash the sides down leaving the chestnuts un-squashed between your feet.
It's very difficult to describe but very easy to do once you have done your first.

And wear gloves!

I carry thick rubber gloves with me for this sort of job and for nettles

Went to the park yesterday with hubby and tried the technique standing either side of the prickly husks and it worked ! Managed to find tons of chestnuts but unfortunately forgot to take any bags so just filled our pockets instead. The best ones we found seemed to be the ones already out of their shells, seems like they ripened on the tree and then fell down. The ones in the shells still weren't as ripe.

Had some lovely roast chestnuts with our roast dinner yesterday, I'd forgotten how nice they taste

I collected a load the other day. Wore thick leather gloves and pulled apart the split spiky bits to take out the biggest chestnut of each one, plus some that had fallen out. There are millions there all falling on the road being crushed by cars! I did check with some neighbours if I could take some because they are near some people's houses but they said that everyone helped themselves. I could see there were more than enough for the whole hamlet just from 3 or 4 giant trees, so the ones I took were just a drop in the ocean!

if off picking chestnuts this week,
now the kids are off school,
love 'em,whats the best way to store so i can eat them through the winter

The "old fashioned" way of storing chestnuts for up to 6 months was to put them in a tin box and bury them in the garden.
Probably in a paper bag (not plastic) in the fridge is the way to do it now.

The tin box method really did work, stayed fresh until about March when they all started growing.

got to go picking today,managed to get 1/3 of a carrier bag in half an hour
in between getting hit on the head by falling chestnuts due to the wind
had some after my tea tonight,didn't cook long enough,just got to experiment with the times
hopefully get out again soon,you can never have enough

No chestnut trees around here that I know of

Anyone know of any south welsh chestnut trees?

cj