Chinese Chestnut; A Miller Family Legacy

Mary Miller writes: Each spring we anxiously look for the first fruit trees to blossom while watching a thermometer at night with hopes that the fruit will survive a late frost.  Weeks after we quit worrying about frost, there is a "late bloomer" which appears.   The three Chinese chestnuts at the Miller Farm now show their strange origins of chestnuts.

After a flower is pollinated, it will be approximately 12 weeks until we gather mature chestnuts under each tree.  One tree produces tasty small nuts; next to it another tree drops large easy to peel fruit; and across the yard the third young tree delivers medium size, tasty nuts.

When Paul's grandfather, Arthur L. Miller, was nearly 80 years old he told his wife, Ethel, that he wanted to order and plant Chinese chestnuts.  She said, "why? You will never eat them?" and he said, " No, but my grandchildren will."-Mary Miller

Mary included the link: How a Flower Becomes a Chestnut

I am also including an article on how the Chinese Chestnut may play a role in creating a blight resistant American Chestnut hybrid. 

The Miller's Chinese chestnut in bloom