Chestnut Roast fires up local agriculture

The fifth annual Missouri Chestnut Roast raised awareness about local agriculture and connected families and farmers through fun.

By Mallory Redinger

Published Oct. 16, 2007

Vendors and guests huddled under tents and umbrellas to escape Saturday's downpours and try locally grown food while visiting with area farmers during the fifth annual Missouri Chestnut Roast.

The MU Center for Agroforestry sponsored the event, which is held annually at the MU Horticulture and Agroforestry Research Center in New Franklin.

Research center spokeswoman Michelle Hall said an estimated 2,000 people showed up at the event. But Hall said they thought the weather dampened this year's attendance. The event drew 5,000 people last year, she said.

The Missouri Chestnut Roast allows local farmers to advertise their names and products, Gibbons Bee Farm vendor Chris Gibbons said. He said it's hard to compete with big-business monopolies.

"A lot of people have told us, 'Oh we saw you at the chestnut roast last year,'" he said. "Then they call us because we have our phone number on the label."

Although Gibbons Bee Farm honey can be found in grocery stores such as Schnucks, Gerbes and Wal-Mart, the roast allows farmers to introduce customers to a wider array of products such as teas, beeswax candles, lip balms and hand creams.

The Missouri Chestnut Roast might help stimulate farmers' sales, but that's only a part of the of the event's goal.

"It's to introduce people in the area to Missouri agriculture," Hall said. "The chestnut side is we're celebrating our harvest of chestnuts."

Hall put on this event with help from the MU College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources. Hall said the Center for Agroforestry promotes planting trees in different configurations to diversify the crop.

Diversifying crops on farms often represents a healthier option for land and allows farmers to produce a wider scope of products to sell, which helps increase profits for local farms, Hall said. Among the many available crop choices, the center promotes the chestnut tree as a viable option.

"We're trying to really get the (chestnut) industry going in Missouri," Hall said.

Vendor Joe Wilson of Missouri Northern Pecan Growers said the choice to name the event after such a strong image of a chestnut roast was a smart idea.

"The uniqueness of the name conjures up feelings of warmth," he said.

Hall said the American chestnut tree was killed by blight in the early 1900s.

"What we're reintroducing is the Chinese Chestnut tree," she said. "This is great for Missouri soil, climate and for smaller farms. It's also great because the demand is high for chestnuts, and the price of chestnuts is good."

The roast helps to bring an awareness of the importance of interrelationships between both the land and the public as well as between farmers.

In return for a place to house their bees, Gibbons Bee Farm allows farmers to use its bees to help pollinate their fields. The arrangement helps both farmers needing pollination and Gibbons Bee Farm, which can only make a limited amount of honey in each area.

Walker Claridge from the Root Cellar, a Columbia grocery store that stocks locally grown food, had boxes from other vendors stacked up behind his stand.

Claridge said the store uses local farmers' produce in order to create about 80 percent of the products they sell.

"It's a nice chance to get to know the farmers," Claridge said.

Alex Maginness, an engineer in the Columbia area, said he recognizes the importance of chestnuts to Missouri

agriculture.

But he said his children had other reasons for braving the weather.

"Sugar-coated chestnuts, of course," he said.