Chinquapin Chestnut Porter

In 1864, about the time the shop at Bust Head corner was serving its potent brew, young Frances Gray of Fauquier County writes in her diary about collecting chinquapins in the forest to pass the time. Forty years later, the chestnut trees lining the entrance to the Bronx Zoo were dying from a blight that arrived from Asia. Tragically, within another forty years, the entire chestnut population in the eastern US was decimated—including the chinquapins Ms. Gray mentioned in her diary. The blight completely altered the composition of what was once a much more abundant forest.

The American Chestnut Foundation is working to bring back this once prolific species—and we are going to help.  The ACF has crossed the American chestnut with the smaller disease-resistant, Asian chestnut, resulting in a disease-resistant tree that is 94% American chestnut.  The work of planting, tending, and culling to develop this strain is continuing with the help ACF chapters throughout the eastern states—including the Virginia chapter, housed in an old one-room schoolhouse in Fauquier County.  A portion of the proceeds from the sale of our Chinquapin Chestnut Porter is being donated to the Virginia Chapter of the American Chestnut Foundation in the hopes of seeing the return of this magnificent species to our Virginia forests.