Chestnut farming might not be the first thing that comes to mind when you’re thinking about what to do with a few extra acres. But for a growing number of growers, landowners, and career-changers across the eastern United States, it’s becoming one of the most exciting decisions they’ve ever made. And once you dig into the reasons why, it’s hard not to see the opportunity.
On the latest episode of Branching Out: Growing Together, Melanie sat down with Brett Hundley of Agroforestry Partners — an investment fund that has put nearly 1,600 acres of chestnut trees in the ground in Kentucky — to talk about exactly this question. Brett didn’t come from farming. He spent 15 years as a sell-side equity analyst covering packaged food and agribusiness, then moved into ESG and sustainability advisory work before landing at Agroforestry Partners. He holds a CFA designation and a master’s degree in Natural Resources from Virginia Tech — consequently, his transition from the financial sector to chestnut cultivation represented a calculated union of two long-standing personal and professional pursuits rather than a sudden gamble. That combination of financial rigor and ecological grounding is precisely what makes his perspective worth hearing.
So why chestnuts? Listen below to hear Brett’s answer to this question.
The Soil Comes First
One of the most compelling reasons to consider growing chestnuts has nothing to do with markets or money. It has to do with what trees do to the land they grow on.
Brett’s fund was set up, first and foremost, to rehabilitate American soils. Decades of conventional row-cropping have stripped a lot of farmland in the eastern U.S. of its biological vitality. Tree roots — deep, persistent, and constantly active — are among the best tools we have for rebuilding that.
Nora D’Antuono of the Ecdysis Foundation, whose research team visited EBB Farms as part of their 1,000 Farms Initiative, put it as plainly as we’ve heard it said: “We can be growing something that’s nutrient-dense, growing a lot of food for local communities, and it requires little disturbance of the soil and can restore ecosystems. Why would we not grow chestnuts?” She went further, noting that chestnuts — with their low inputs, perennial nature, and high yields — “perfectly sum up regenerative aspirations.” Furthermore, her research highlights chestnuts specifically for their potential as a food and alternative ingredient to corn, which speaks to just how different this crop’s future could be.
Chestnut trees fit the soil profiles of much of Appalachia and the Midwest: they tolerate lower pH, handle slope well, and don’t demand the heavy inputs that many other crops do. Consequently, if you’re a landowner with hillside ground that doesn’t pencil out for corn or beans, chestnut trees may actually be a better ecological and economic match than trying to force conventional crops where they don’t belong.
The Economics Are Real
Chestnut farming isn’t a get-rich-quick venture. However, the economics are genuinely attractive when you understand the timeline and the market.
Tom Wahl of Red Fern Farm in Iowa — one of the country’s longest-tenured chestnut growers, with trees dating back to 1990 — has shared his numbers publicly and consistently: on a good site with good management, mature chestnut trees can produce up to 100 bushels per acre and sell for $165 a bushel or more. “And that gets their attention,” he told Melanie when describing how he presents the opportunity to farmers used to thinking in corn and soybean terms.
Financial advisor and chestnut grower Joel Hubbard frames the land investment case a different way. “Land is a counter-cyclical thing against stocks and bonds,” he explained on the podcast. “When stocks and bonds are doing well, land may not perform as well — however, in market corrections, an agricultural position in your portfolio will balance that out.” For anyone building a diversified financial plan, chestnut orchard land isn’t just a farming decision. It’s a portfolio decision.
Moreover, the U.S. chestnut market itself is growing. Around 7 million pounds of chestnuts are currently imported each year — primarily from Italy and China — representing demand that domestic growers haven’t yet been able to fill. That import-displacement opportunity is real and it’s waiting.
Why Chestnuts Specifically? It Wasn’t an Accident
What’s particularly striking about Brett’s reasoning is that chestnuts weren’t chosen arbitrarily. His team set out to find the right tree crop for the eastern U.S., and chestnuts rose to the top based on several converging factors: soil and climate fit for the Appalachian and Ohio Valley region, a nascent domestic market with genuine room to grow, import displacement potential, and multiple end markets ranging from fresh whole nuts to flour, dried products, and food ingredients.
As Brett put it, “everything just seemed to work out — the ecological profile, the economics behind the tree, and the forward market opportunity.”
Greg Miller, who has been cultivating and evaluating chestnuts for decades at the Route 9 Cooperative, underscored the long horizon this crop demands. “The chestnut business is such a long-term endeavor,” he told us. “It’s definitely a transgenerational thing.” That framing isn’t discouraging — it’s clarifying. You’re not planting a seasonal crop. You’re building something that will outlast you.
Bob Stehli of Wintergreen Tree Farm in Ohio, who has planted over 30,000 chestnut trees across 180 acres over his career, came to chestnuts as a child and never left. His driving conviction? “If we could make money on them, people would start planting them” — and more planting means more conservation, more ecosystem restoration, and a more viable domestic industry for everyone. Purpose and profitability, in his view, are the same thing.
What This Means for the Independent Grower
You don’t need 1,600 acres to make chestnut farming work. Some of the most thoughtful operations we’ve featured are running 10, 20, or 50 acres with real discipline and real results. The key is going in with clear eyes.
A few things every new grower should understand upfront:
- Site suitability comes before everything else: Tom Wahl is direct about this: “Find out if their site is suited to chestnuts before they start thumbing through nursery catalogs. They won’t go just anywhere — they are a bit on the picky side when it comes to the kind of site they grow on.” Well-drained, acidic soil with good slope is the starting point. Get this right first.
- This is a long-game crop: Year seven is when production gets real. Plan accordingly — financially and operationally. Joel Hubbard’s advice: “There’s a good financial upside for sure if you’re patient.”
- Start selling before you’re ready: The growers who struggle at harvest are often the ones who never thought about the market during the planting years. Build relationships early.
- Find your community: Organizations like Chestnut Growers of America are working to modernize the industry, build shared resources, and connect growers across the country. That network is worth more than most growers realize.
The Bigger Picture
Chestnuts were once a foundational part of the eastern American forest. The blight changed that. What’s happening now — across small farms, university research programs, and investment funds — is a slow and earnest rebuilding.
You’re not just planting trees. You’re participating in something larger: a domestic food system that feeds people well, restores degraded land, and creates economic opportunity in rural communities that need it. As Nora D’Antuono put it, looking forward with real optimism: “I hope that our food system is going to be feeding local communities, and we’ll be living in communities where people will want to know their farmers… Food has a great way of bringing all those things together.”
That’s a pretty good reason to plant chestnuts on your farm.