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Stop #8: Colossal Chestnut Tree


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Walk to the dirt road and turn left to go to the Bear Yuba Land Trust office. This building was the Gardener’s Cottage during the days of the North Star Mine operations.

To your right as you walk up alongside the Land Trust building, look for a Felix Gillet Colossal Chestnut, most likely planted in the 1880’s.

Colossal Chestnut, Autumn

The Colossal Chestnut tree is pollen sterile, and orchards require interspersed planting of pollinizers.  A Colossal Chestnut can produce 11-15 nuts per pound. An orchard can produce 4500 lbs/acre. A few steps away in the orchard is a Norman Chestnut pollinizer tree.  Gillet always sold the two varieties together. This pollinizer tree has the remnants of a tree house.

Colossal Chestnut, Spring

This Colossal Chestnut tree still produces. The fuzzy skins that contain the chestnuts are called catkins.

Walk through the south orchard as you make your way back to the courtyard of NSH. Look for white tags hanging from several trees. These are survivors from the fruit and nut orchard of Felix Gillet varieties. These plantings predated Arthur’s arrival at North Star.

 

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Upcoming Events and News

  • Summer 2022 Newsletter Now Ready for Reading
  • AutumnFest, Sunday October 2, 12-4pm
  • North Star House Holiday Celebration, Dec. 4, 4-6pm
  • North Star Legacy Landscape Tour
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Location

Copyright © 2022 North Star Historic Conservancy - All Rights Reserved - contact

North Star Historic Conservancy | P.O. Box 1538, Grass Valley, CA 95945 | TEL: (530) 477-7126

THE NORTH STAR HOUSE IS LOCATED AT 12075 AUBURN ROAD, GRASS VALLEY

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