Well, my little hands finally got to the photos from the Chestnut Festival held in October and prepared a photo report for you!
This year we were lucky enough to visit Koshtanyada - a holiday entirely dedicated to one not widely known, but very tasty fruit - chestnut. This holiday is held for the eighth time in Montenegro with the aim of preserving ancient chestnut trees and planting young ones.
The festival started at 11 o'clock, but we were a bit late and didn't manage to take pictures of everything. Several folklore groups performed at the festival. Despite the overcast sky and clear hints of the approach of rain, it was quite warm and sincere. The guests were treated to free wine from the Plantage company and some young wine “Mlada French”, but the most important treat was freshly grilled chestnuts - well, very tasty! True, there was a long queue behind them, and we had already abandoned the idea of standing in it (and why, when can I pick them up in the forest and cook them at home with the same success?), but our guest from her native Siberia, not believing that they were treated to this for free, firmly decided to stand in line and get her bag of chestnuts at all costs 🙂 Her impulses were rewarded and after 40 minutes of waiting she left with the treasured bag , which we helped her empty 🙂
In addition to the chestnuts themselves, the guests were treated to a variety of pastries - cookies, cakes and sandwiches with chestnut paste. Here you could also buy fresh chestnuts, fresh olive oil, local oranges, pomegranates, dried figs, etc.
One 84-year-old local resident said that earlier Montenegrins often baked delicious bread from chestnut flour mixed with wheat (chestnuts are high in starch). “This bread was very much appreciated in our time,” she said, “and chestnut tea fights coughs and even asthma very well.”
If you, friends, are lucky enough to visit Montenegro in October, be sure to visit Kostanjada, which is held annually in Stoliv (Bay of Kotor), and taste the sweet chestnuts!
You can read about our personal acquaintance with chestnuts and the recipe for chestnut soup here - What do we remember about October?
