The Chestnut of the Gasthuishof

The farm is nearly four centuries old and the tree is only two, which is the correct order for once. The Gasthuishof stands close to what was the border between the duchy of Gelre and the duchy of Gulik, two of the patchwork states that made up this part of Europe before anyone drew a Netherlands or a Germany. That line is now the boundary between Venlo and Kaldenkirchen. The original farm here was timber; it was replaced by a stone building in 1654, which is when the place stopped being provisional. The chestnut went in around 1810 to 1820, on the yard. Sweet chestnut is a Roman import to northern Europe, brought for the nuts, and it is a farmyard tree for practical reasons rather than decorative ones. It produces heavily, the nuts store, and a mature tree will feed a household through a winter. Old ones develop a spiral in the bark, the ridges twisting slowly round the trunk as it grows, which is the easiest way to spot one at distance. October is the month. The spiny husks split on the ground and you can pick them out with your boot.