Thorns Hide Sweetness

Chestnuts peek out from nests of spiky burs on Sunday in Obuse, Nagano Prefecture. Harvest season for the town’s famed chestnuts is now at its peak. This orchard, called Marron-zine Obuse, consists of 26 plots in which roughly 600 chestnut trees in about 10 varieties are cultivated. These varieties include Ginyose and Tsukuba chestnuts, both of which are now in season. The chestnuts will soon be shipped to local confectioneries, specialty shops and other businesses. “The fruit is smaller this year because of the dry summer, but it’s also sweeter than usual,” said the orchard’s representative, 50-year-old Shigehisa Kobayashi. The harvest will continue until around mid-October and is expected to total about nine tons, in line with an average year.