About Us

We ship chestnuts directly to you for free from late October to early January.  U-pick chestnuts are available during 2026 by appointment in October and open to all on October 10th and 17th, 2026. Chestnuts are harvested from October 1st to November 1st each year and therefore are very fresh for Holiday celebrations and roasting. 

Growing high quality and healthy chestnuts is a priority since we eat the chestnuts we grow and our family lives and works in the orchards year around. 

Our Chinese chestnuts are grown without any fertilizers or pesticides. 

Our European chestnuts are not certified organic but are grown using natural methods including: (1) using silvicultural practices and composting to reduce the need for inorganic fertilizer, (2) by leaving tall grass in the orchard (rather than chemical sprays) to control brown rot, and (3) by using mowers and sheep instead of chemicals to control weeds and grass.   

Yes!  In fact, many of our customers use our chestnuts to start their own orchards since our trees have survived in northern Michigan and are from the highest quality cultivars.  Our nuts will also be free of weevils, brown rot, and blight since we do not have those pests at North Star Chestnuts.  To order chestnuts for seed, look for the seed chestnut options in our store. 

No! Our chestnuts are copies of the highest quality chestnuts in the world.  Our chestnuts are copied by grafting a part of the 'mother' tree on to another chestnut tree. Grafting is not the same thing as gene editing or using CRISPR to genetically modify trees.

Our family does.  When you buy chestnuts from North Star Chestnuts you directly support our farm and family.

Yes!  Our chestnuts are weevil free, grown in a natural way, and grown in northern Michigan where the air and water is cool and clean.  Our nuts are much sweeter than nuts grown in the southern U.S. and fresher for the Holidays since they ripen in middle of October rather than middle of September. 

Cooking chestnuts is very easy.  On our cooking page, we describe how to roast chestnuts and cook them in over 10 different ways.