Anyone know the difference between EDIBLE chestnuts and conkers?

Easy one.

When you split a few of them open, there are more often likely to be two if its a chestnut, one if its a horse chestnut, also look out for the caterpillar like flowers that proceeds the chestnuts and the final thing, is that if they are chestnuts the squirells will be eating them. They smell sweeter too on opening, conkers (horse chestnuts) smell woody.

OK Mart, know-it-all, then why are chestnuts so delicious (fondant, puree etc) yet Horse Chestnuts inedible?

You have got me there! But anything that smells like a pencil as a conker does, is unlikely to be eaten by anyone! Yuk!

A quick note about chestnuts, as I did do this myself, I collected hundreds once and they do rot pretty quickly in a bowl, so when collecting them it really is not worth being over greedy, you will be unlikely to get through them all.

And a second quick note that I have noticed about them, whilst a tree will appear to have a similar crop year after year, some years they are very small for some reason and not worth having.

I often wonder if the chestnut puree that I often buy around Christmas time are from wild (and indeed free) produce or farmed specifically to be canned.
Chestnut puree is great on toast on its own, I have never read what they have added to it from the label.

Crab apples, now there`s another similar topic, why were we all taught as kids that they were poisonous and now recipes with them in are starting to appear?

From my ever decreasing hard drive of a memory, I actually blame the Beano Comic for this. I am pretty sure that on more than one occasion Dennis and Gnasher groaned after "poaching" the wrong apples!

Mart wrote:
Easy one.

When you split a few of them open, there are more often likely to be two if its a chestnut, one if its a horse chestnut, also look out for the caterpillar like flowers that proceeds the chestnuts and the final thing, is that if they are chestnuts the squirells will be eating them. They smell sweeter too on opening, conkers (horse chestnuts) smell woody.

...careful! Squirrels and some deer are resistant to aescin, which is the poison in horse-chestnuts/conkers, and they'll merrily eat them up and suffer no harm - unlike people.

BTW if I've just scotched your long-term evil plan of infiltration to kill JK I apologise