Discovery of a Canadian in Leuven? Makes me all nostalgic …
I imagine you walking through the woods and picking up what is called in Flemish “paardekastanjes”. I remember that we played with them when I was a child and visiting my grandmother in Belgium. My nieces used to make “juwelry” of them.
But no, you can’t eat them but you can eat the real kastanjes and can find them also in the wild (as is explained, the pinns on the bolster are much denser and very sharp, like needles).
The other main difference between the two is that the “wilde kastanjes” have pink flowers in the spring while the “tamme kastanjes” have white ones.
You can also buy the eatable ones (unbolstered) but I think it is still a bit too early for that, maybe half october you shall see them in shops and supermarkets.
You can find them also selled hot and roasted on the public markets (I think that is still every friday in the centre of Leuven, before the central library and Edgar Hooverplein and environment). To do that yourself you make an incision in the form of a cross on one side and put them on the hot electric plate or in a pan or something until they pop open.
It is called “gepofte kastanjes” and that is the only thing I can cook without creating a disaster, so I don’t know about the rosebuds. I remember that there is some distinction between which ones you can eat and which ones not. I think you must have the very dark red buds of what is called “wild roses”. It is a bit vague in my memory as I have that only from hearsay when I was a child.
Most probably you can buy the stuff all prepared in bottles. Personally I have only eaten it once and that was in Austria where it seems to be popular. I don’t think it is all that popular in Belgium to use rose buds in the kitchen.
What you can use for cooking is “brandnetels” (don’t know the word in English, green things that grow everywhere and give a burning feeling on your skin when you touch them). One of my student-friends was a reasonable good cook and he made soup of them. For that you must cut only the lightgreen freshgrown top leaves and you use them instead of “kervel” while following the recipe for “kervelsoep”. (you need to buy yourself a Dutch-English dictionary for reading my post :). …)
Great my Alma Mater for me and enjoy your stay in my mother’s homeland.
Salaam. A