I'm talking about the little three-cornered nuts produced by the common beech Fagus Sylvatica

They are borne on the tree inside tough, bristly capsules that split open in a four-pointed star shape and drop the nuts (a pair from each capsule) to the ground

I picked about a double handful of them, straight off the leaves and soil of the forest floor - it had rained the day before, so the conditions for collecting were not ideal

However, these are seeds - they're designed to last the whole winter in contact with damp soil, so there's nothing to worry about really

On returning home, I rinsed the nuts in a colander, then set about shelling them

This is undeniably a very fiddly job, as the nuts are smaller than peanuts, but the shells are just soft enough (particularly when wet) to be broken open and peeled off using only the fingernails

It took a whole hour to shell all the nuts I picked - ending up with just more than a large handful of kernels

Some of them are covered with a fine coating of little fibres - so I gave them another rinse

I drained them and tossed them in a little salt and sugar, then spread them on a metal tray

I roasted them in the oven at 130 C for just seven minutes - they're really small and could burn quite easily

I sprinkled a little more sugar over them when they came out of the oven

Turns out that leaving the skins on was a mistake - as that part is still quite astringent, even after roasting

A better approach would have been to roast them dry with no added ingredients, then rub off the skins and then toss them in some salt and/or sugar