Amy
BRIEF:
Small, sweet, and early. Peels easily enough that growers single it out for processing, and one of the first varieties off the tree each season.
DETAILED:
Amy came from the same 1972 Ohio planting as Gideon and Peach, selected by Greg Miller from seedlings his father had raised. He named it after his daughter.
The nuts are smaller than either sibling and they get smaller as the tree ages — around twelve grams in a young tree, settling closer to ten at maturity. We call that downward sizeshift, and Amy is the clearest example of it in our orchard. What the nuts lack in size they make up in flavor, and they peel cleanly. That last quality is why growers single Amy out for peeled and processed use. Anyone who has sat down with a bowl of stubborn chestnuts understands why easy peeling can matter more than size.
Amy drops early, ahead of most of the orchard, which makes it one of the first varieties we can offer in a season. The tree bears heavily and reliably.
Because it also blooms early, we are careful where we put it. Early flowers and low ground where frost settles are a poor combination, and we have plenty of low ground.