The Foodie-file: Chestnut Buyer Guide
As promised, I have done some research about chestnut products and where to buy them. Fresh chestnuts, chestnut puree, peeled vacuum packed and jarred chestnuts are mainly seasonal items so you will be hard pressed to find them year round outside of specialty food stores. You should be able to find them in most urban centres from November to January or February. In Chinese markets you will probably find dried chestnuts most of the time.
As many of the questions we are fielding are coming from Toronto; here are some retail options in this area; Pusataris, Bruno’s and Whole foods are all carrying vacuum packed chestnuts, chestnut puree and jarred chestnuts.
Mainstream grocery stores were hit and miss across the country, some carried some of the products and some did not carry any. You will likely find them at Chinese and Italian markets if you have one in your area.
Call your grocery store to see if they are carrying the product you need. The way to get your local grocery stores to carry specialty products is to ask for them, they will eventually respond if their clients are asking for a product – look at pomegranate juice, a few years ago it was impossible to find and now they sell it in bottles at the checkout!
Here are also two online resources that carry chestnut products and ship within Canada:
Edelweiss Imports; ships in Canada and also has a retail store in Calgary.
http://www.edelweissimports.com/section_id/12
Chetnutsonline.com; ships to Canada and carries dried chestnuts, fresh chestnuts, chestnut flour and other specialty chestnut products.
http://www.chestnutsonline.com/products.htm
Hope that helps with your chestnut quest!
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