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The 6th Annual Missouri Chestnut Roast
was held on Oct. 18, 2008
The Missouri Chestnut Roast, held annually in October during the chestnut
harvest season, has become one of mid-Missouri's premier family-oriented
events. Thousands of Missouri Chestnut Roast visitors each year enjoy
samples of sweet, Missouri-grown roasted chestnuts, along with a variety of
products featuring Missouri-grown black walnuts and pecans. The event is
an outstanding opportunity to introduce landowners to the broad range of
possibilities and benefits that can result from implementing agroforestry
practices on their land.
Goals of the Annual Missouri Chestnut Roast Event
- To increase the markets and production of pecan, walnut, chestnut and a wide variety of horticulture products
- To help revitalize Missouri agriculture with new markets for agroforestry products, including pine straw, gourmet mushrooms, decorative florals and red cedar products
- To educate landowners and the public about the economic and environmental benefits of agroforestry
- To increase traffic to mid-Missouri businesses that promote or sell chestnuts, walnuts and pecans
- To encourage nuts as a healthy, nutritious food choice
- To promote agritourism to the River Hills region and increase visitor traffic to Mid-Missouri
- To generate interest and awareness of the historic 1819 Hickman House as a Missouri treasure
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A Missouri Chestnut Roast Success Story from a Past Event
The UMCA strives to maintain the success of the family farm and to preserve
Missouri's unique and diverse natural resources. This mission is best
expressed through the testimonial of landowners and agricultural producers
impacted by the Center's activities, like the Chestnut Roast.
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| Julie Price: Taste of the Kingdom Chestnut Sauces are popular among visitors to the Roast |
Julie Price, former CEO of Taste of the Kingdom Missouri-made food
products, participated in the Missouri Chestnut Roast event in 2003 as a
booth vendor and incorporated chestnuts into her product line for the first
time. The experience proved to be a perfect match for UMCA's goals and
those of the Missouri producers who attended.
Mrs. Price writes:
"In continuing our mission of supporting Missouri niche agriculture through
the production an sale of value-added, all natural, kosher certified
products, we began work with the MU Center for Agroforestry in February to
develop new value-added products using chestnuts. The University is
promoting chestnuts as a new cash crop in Missouri. Chestnuts began
dropping only two weeks ago, which created a tight time line for
manufacturing, but the pressure was justified by the consumer response. We
were confident our new fruit line (using Missouri grown produce, of course)
would sell, but we had no idea there would be so much interest in
chestnuts! Not only did our four chestnut sauces sell, but people wanted to
buy our display chestnuts as well! We received absolutely no negative
reactions to the new concept of chestnuts as a sauce ingredient, but rather
were confronted with a myriad of questions (e.g. what is a chestnut?) which
opened the door to educate the public on chestnuts as a new Missouri niche
crop." - Oct. 6, 2003
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