112 PUNCHMAGAZINE.COM NUTS ABOUT NUTS The part of his job Hans loves the most? “The freedom of it,” he says without hesitation. “You can barely make a living, but it’s a great life. I have the rest of the year to do what I would like to do.” And what exactly does he do with the rest of his time? “Surprisingly, it’s talk a lot about chestnuts,” Hans laughs. Since becoming a bit of an expert over the years, Hans could be off doing some on-site consulting for a permaculture farm in Half Moon Bay or giving guidance on planting chestnut trees to the retired head of the New York City Transportation Department. But come mid-October, you’ll find Hans and Chewy (his elderly chihuahua) welcoming guests to the orchard. “I’ve really come to know these trees,” Hans says, ing. In fact, the pandemic brought in such throngs of stir-crazy folks that Hans implemented an online reservation system. “People were really eager to get out of the house,” he says. “The entire parking lot was completely blocked up with cars—15 minutes after we opened the gates.” People parked miles away and hiked in. “It was nuts!” Lately, Hans sees about 500 people a day. “You make a reservation for the space that you park in,” he explains. “You can have as many people as you can pack into your car.” Not all of Hans’s visitors are human. “I do lose some chestnuts to the wildlife,” he admits. It seems that wild turkeys, deer, squirrels and the endangered dusky-footed woodrat also enjoy feasting on chestnuts. Even so, he estimates he sells about twoand-a-half tons per season. that a squirrel could travel from Maine to the Gulf Coast, branch to branch, without touching the ground,” Hans marvels. “They were known as the redwoods of the East.” Not anymore. “In the early 1900s, the American chestnut was starting to get wiped out by a disease that was imported to the Bronx Zoo,” Hans says. The blight swept the East Coast, taking 4 billion American chestnut trees with it, and reducing its numbers to a few untouched spots in Michigan, Wisconsin and the West Coast. Four of Hans’ trees are American. “The chestnuts that come off of those are smaller. They’re sweeter.” At Skyline Chestnuts, both the trees and the business are thrivThe Chestnut King PHOTOGRAPHY: ROBB MOST
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTcxMjMwNg==