Today was chestnut collecting day! We headed off to Petrova Gora which is better known for its crazy Monument to the Uprising of the People of Kordun and Banija than its chestnut trees. The monument was erected by a sculpture to remember those that fought the fascists in WW2. Unfortunately since the Yugoslav war the monument has been left to rack and ruin. But its a great building to climb inside, the inner architecture is as wild as its outer and the view from the top magnificent.
We took our neighbour Nada along with us as she has all kinds of essential local hidden knowledge, she was keen to pick chestnuts and has not been to Petrova Gora since 1993 despite it being a top spot for chestnuts. We foraged around the forest floor for about an hour or more and came away with finger tips tingling from the spikey outer shells of the chestnuts that many nuts were still hiding within.
My haul was given general approval and later that evening Marko and Sunni roasted a load on their wood stove. I was a bit disappointed that so many were bad or had worms inside but the good ones were wonderful. I freezer bagged a load for Vanja which now we have a new freezer unit is easy to do.
