Protected local food
Iinuma Chestnuts
飯沼栗
Large, glossy chestnuts from Ibaraki town in Ibaraki, grown so each spiky burr holds a single nut. Chilled in storage until sweeter before they ship.
Key facts
- Registered as a protected name
- 23 June 2017
- Region
- Kanto
- Official name in Japanese
- 飯沼栗
- Official area (in Japanese)
- 茨城県東茨城郡茨城町
One nut per burr
A chestnut burr usually holds two or three nuts. Growers in Ibaraki town, Ibaraki, use their own pollination method, kept strictly within the group, so each burr grows just one large nut. The plateau of Kanto loam holds water and air well and rarely suffers typhoons or snow, which suits chestnut trees.
Washed, sorted, chilled
The growers built their own chestnut washer, sort the nuts three times before shipping and keep them in cold storage until they become sweeter. Over five years, Iinuma chestnuts sold for about twice the average price at Tokyo's central wholesale market.
How to eat it
Try kuri gohan, rice cooked with chestnuts, or roasted chestnuts. In autumn, Japanese cake shops use local chestnuts in mont blanc.
Good to know
- Chestnut season is autumn, from about September. Ibaraki is one of Japan's biggest chestnut regions, so look for chestnut sweets there.
- In Ibaraki, also try Edosaki Kabocha and Okukuji Shamo.
Questions travellers ask
Why are they so big?
Growers use a method that leaves just one nut in each burr, so it grows much larger.
When are they in season?
Autumn. Cold storage lets them ship a little later, once they are sweeter.
Where it comes from
More protected foods from the same area
Crafts from the same area
Heritage stories from the same area
Sources
We checked the facts on this page against these sources.