A German shorthaired pointer gundog led Hailee Hein to her FFA supervised agricultural experience project, and it had nothing to do with hunting.
Like many young pups, her dog, Resi, required training before heading out into the field. However, the experience turned out to be more than just learning hunting techniques for the young canine.
Following a visit to the trainer, Hailee’s father, Aric, returned home with information and a curiosity about chestnuts. He told his young daughter, who was only 7 years old at the time, that it might make a good 4-H project.
Little did she realize that simple suggestion would mark the start of a journey — one that would eventually see her managing 600 trees in the family chestnut orchard as a 4-H project and FFA SAE.
“What I like most about these chestnut trees and walking through the orchard with my family and Resi,” the Princeton FFA member says, “is knowing how far we’ve come from these seedlings first being planted in the ground to now producing their own chestnuts.”
Trials and errors in production
To start raising chestnuts, Hein along with her dad and mom, Carol, learned the art and science behind cold stratification seeds. The result created her original orchard of 25 chestnut seedlings, planted in 2017 on their farm near Spickard, Mo.
One year later, by incorporating chestnut seedling trees, the orchard grew to more than 600 trees. But the rapid expansion came with a few learning opportunities.
“It was hard work,” Hein recalls. “My dad would drive down the rows, and we would take the tree off the truck. Dad would help me dig the holes. Then we would set the trees in place.”
Once planted, the trees required frequent watering, but at the time, all she had was a watering truck and watering can. “We learned the hard way that we needed irrigation,” Hein says.
Together, they planned and installed an efficient irrigation system. It pulls water from a nearby pond and a well, with pipes delivering it where it’s needed. Divided into zones, Hein can water one section at a time.
“My mom, dad and I have put in a lot of hard work, blood, sweat and a few tears into this orchard,” Hein says. “I’m quite proud of where we have come to where we are now.”
Market for chestnuts
Hein spends most of her days after school and weekends during late September to late October harvesting chestnuts, which can be a sticky job.
When ripe, spiked burs split open, and chestnuts fall from the branches to the ground. An average orchard produces three nuts per bur. They will either be small, medium or large (called jumbo by industry standards), depending on tree genetics.
Hein harvested nearly 300 pounds of chestnuts this year, up from 200 pounds last year.
“Our family uses chestnuts in Thanksgiving stuffing,” she says. “It’s a seasonal favorite at our house.”
They cannot consume all of their bounty, so they sell chestnuts locally to individual consumers and another orchard.
“Currently, we sell a majority of the chestnuts in the wholesale market and a few locally,” Hein explains. “We have plans, that when the trees produce more, to market the nuts under our own brand and sell in the retail market.”
Unorthodox learning by doing
FFA SAEs help members develop skills beyond the classroom through real-world agricultural experiences.
“Supervised agricultural experiences allow students to gain knowledge about specific jobs, how to earn money, keep records and apply concepts that they are taught in the agriculture classroom to their hands-on experiences,” says Becca Bickel, Hein’s FFA advisor at Princeton High School.
While most FFA projects focus on livestock or crops, Hein chose chestnut trees, a unique and patient endeavor.
She waited several years before she was able to produce her own chestnuts from her own trees, Bickel notes. “Hailee works to harvest these chestnuts by hand, a true labor of love,” she says.
Orchard management demands science, business and persistence.
“I’ve grown with the trees,” Hein says. “Seeing how my orchard has progressed, it shows that I can do this, and I can market this. It gives me a feeling of confidence.”
Her advisor agrees: “The passion that ignites when you ask her about her SAE is magnificent,” Bickel says. “Hailee’s SAE will continue to grow as her passion for the industry grows.”
American chestnut history
In the early 1800s, American chestnut trees were a fundamental in the Appalachian economy, as many people built their houses and barns from one tree. They also relied on nuts as a food source.
These trees, some over 150 years old, originally spanned:
- the Appalachian Mountains
- Northeastern states such as Maine
- States as far south as Alabama and Mississippi
- Northern states such as Michigan
However, in 1904, blight was first noted at the New York Bronx Zoo. The fungus spread, and over the span of 40 years, the American chestnut population plummeted from 15 million trees to fewer than 150,000 in America.
European and Asian chestnuts showed significant resistance to the blight and were unaffected by it. In Missouri, Chinese chestnut are the trees of choice for nut producers across the state, including Hein’s orchard.