Would you want to know where pine nuts come from? From what I’ve learned, pine nuts are the pieces that can be eaten that are taken from the seeds of different kinds of pine trees.
The seeds usually have a thick shell and grow inside pine cones that look a lot like the cones on pines that are only grown for their wood.
When you buy them at the store, pine nuts are very pricey, but they’re not even new.
Since the Middle Ages, people have been gathering pine nuts.
A pinyon pine can be grown at home, and pine nuts can be taken from the cones. Keep reading to learn more about where pine nuts come from and a lot more.
Now, let’s get started.
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Where do pine nuts come from
Where do pine nuts come from? Pine trees produce pine nuts.
Other pines with edible nuts are the European stone pine and Asian Korean pine. These pines are native to the United States.
The smallest and most fancy nut is the pine nut. It has a sweet, mild taste.
You can start getting pine nuts from pine cones if you have a pinyon pine tree in your yard.
In the U.S., Native American and Hispanic communities, especially in the West and Southwest, gather pine nuts.
The Shoshone, Paiute, Navajo, Pueblo, Hopi, Washoe, and Hispanos of New Mexico are some of the groups that do this.
Laws and treaties made by Native American groups protect their right to gather pine nuts.
In New Mexico, the word “piñon” is only allowed to be used for pine nuts from certain types of native New Mexican pines.
Can you get pine nuts from any pine tree
Yes, you can cut down many types of pinyon pine trees, but some give you better crops than others.
The Colorado pinyon, the Mexican pinyon, and the single-leaf pinyon are the best to pick because their pine nuts are the biggest.
The only pine trees that make nuts big enough to pick are pinyon pine trees.
Any pine tree can make a pine nut, but only about 18 kinds make nuts that are big enough to eat.
Africa, Asia, and North America all have these trees.
Pine trees are usually split into two groups: males and females.
A male thinks it’s wild and grows freely in any bush, but a female can only plant herself or be helped by a farmer.
This type of fruit has pine seeds inside, and it takes a long time to harvest the seeds—the fruit started green on the tree and took a long time to turn brown.
It then took many months after picking the fruit to get to the seeds, which were inside a black shell. The white fruit inside was the pine seeds.
In my area, thousands of trees are hundreds of years old and up to 30 meters tall. People die every year when they try to climb to the top to pick the fruit.
What country do these nuts come from
Most of the world’s pine nuts are grown in China, Russia, and Korea. Most of the pine nuts we buy in stores are from Korean stone pine (Pinus koraiensis).
The Northern Hemisphere is home to all of these species. It includes North America, Europe, Russia, Siberia, China, and Central Asia.
Many of the world’s market crops come from just three kinds. One of the best is the European Stone Pine (Pinus pinea).
Second, they are from the Western Pinyon Pine (piñon) are now available in the U.S. market.
The Chinese White Pine (Pinus armandii) also produces a big, marketable crop that you can mostly find in U.S. stores.
In 2019, 59% of all pine nuts exported around the world came from China alone.
Most of these nuts (50%) end up in stores in the U.S., U.K., and Europe.
A lot of people in North America and Europe want pine nuts, which hurts other types of forests.
For instance, in some parts of East Asia, broadleaf forests have become less healthy because of the large-scale nut gathering in pine forests.
People have told me about cone-collecting camps that form after big crops. The stories describe chaos and sometimes dangerous situations.
Some people say they get a short-term condition called “pine nut mouth” after eating seeds from Pinus armandii.
This species isn’t edible but often grows with Pinus koraiensis and is sometimes collected by accident.
This is a bitter taste that lasts for a while. Still, the demand for pine nuts around the world (and here at home) keeps growing very quickly.
Why are they so expensive
The peanut is one of the most popular nuts, but it can also be used in many other ways.
On the other hand, the pine nut is way too expensive, which makes the teardrop-shaped nuts look like pearls.
They taste good, but they cost a lot. Using them to make pesto can quickly add up to a lot of money. And please don’t eat them as snacks.
A look at the prices on Amazon shows that an ounce of pine nuts costs about $1.44, and an ounce of almonds costs about 42 cents.
“There’s nothing better than tasting a fresh pine nut.”
“It has a lot of flavor, and they taste so good,” said Linda Grimo, manager of the Grimo Nut Nursery in Ontario, Canada.
“But I don’t cook with them a lot because they are expensive.”
Because of the high cost, even Grimo, who lives near a farm full of nut trees, doesn’t cook with pine nuts as often as she’d like to.
This is the reason these treats cost so much.
The price of pine nuts has gone up because of a number of things, such as less supply and more demand.
Some of the main things that are making pine nut prices go up are
1. Climate change: Droughts and uncertainty have hurt pine nut farms, which has caused the supply to drop.
2. Infestations of pests: Some types of pests, like the pine cone beetle, can do a lot of damage to pine nut trees and lower the supply.
3. Too much picking: Too much gathering of pine nuts has killed off wild pine nut trees, which further reduces the supply.
Pine nuts are becoming more famous as a high-protein, gluten-free food that can be used in many health-conscious diets. This has caused more people to want to buy them.
5. Trade around the world: As pine nuts have become more famous around the world, more people want them, which drives up costs.
Because of all of these things, the price of pine nuts has gone up, making them more expensive for both buyers and sellers.
Pine nuts are likely to stay expensive for a while longer unless new sources of supply are found or the problems that are limiting supply are fixed.
Which country has the most pine nuts
China sends more of these nuts abroad than any other country.
Turkey, Pakistan, and Russia are also very important in the world market.
Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Greece are just a few of the Mediterranean countries in Europe where you can find pine trees.
You can find pine nuts inside pine cones.
These nuts are the tree’s seeds. Many trees, like pine trees, don’t bear fruit for decades or even decades.
Some trees can live very long.
That being said, species and regional spread in Russia grow the most Pinus sibirica nuts in the world.
Mongolia grows more than 10,000 tons of walnuts in the forest every year, which is second only to Russia.
A lot of the crop is sent to China.
Pine nuts, which are called pinole in Italian and pine nuts in Spanish, are the seeds of pine trees that can be eaten.
The Chilgoza pine and the Korean pine are the two main types of pine trees that are known for their tasty seeds.
Pine nuts should be stored in buildings that are clean, well-ventilated, free of bugs and smells of other things, at a temperature of no more than 20°C, out of direct sunlight, and with an air humidity of no more than 70%.
Eating pine nuts lowers cholesterol, makes blood flow better, and cuts down on liver fat.
You can make good money by selling this nuts in Spain, Germany, and Italy, which are the biggest markets in Europe right now.
A lot of the people who bring pine nuts into the country also pack them and do trade, processing, and wholesale sales.
Mediterranean recipes often have pine nuts as an addition, and the product is doing well because more people are interested in Mediterranean food.
Pine nuts were often turned away at the European border in the past because of pine mouth syndrome, a condition where eating pine nuts leaves your mouth with an unpleasant taste.
Growers like them because of this, and they are often cut down without the strict supervision of forestry experts.
When and How to Harvest Pine Nuts
Pine nuts are picked when they are fully ripe, which is in late summer or fall. To begin, you will need pine trees with low branches that have both open and closed pine cones on them.
When the pine cones open, it means the nuts inside are ready to be picked, but you don’t want these cones because the nuts have already been released.
Most likely, animals and birds ate the nuts.
If you want to get pine nuts from pine cones, you should get closed cones instead.
Just make sure you don’t get any sap on your hands because it’s hard to get off.
Put cones in the bag and take them home. Some scales cover the outside of a pine cone, and the pine nuts are inside each scale.
When the scales are heated or dried out, they open up. The nuts will fall out of the cones on their own if you leave your bag somewhere warm, dry, and sunny.
This speeds up the process of getting pine nuts out of pine cones. After a few days or even a week, give the bag a good shake.
The pine nuts should be able to slide out of the open pine cones. Gather them up, and then use your fingers to take off the shells from each one.
If you want to buy nuts, pine nuts are one of the most pricey ones. They’re also hard to work with over time.
These nuts are pricey because they take a long time to grow, and the seeds have to be carefully removed from their shell.
However, pine nuts are free to find in nature; you need to know how to find them and be patient as you crack them.
Not all pine nuts take that long; some can take up to three years.
They bloom in the spring and keep growing until the end of summer or the start of fall. During the fall and winter, the cones go to sleep.
They wake up in the spring or summer after that.
Final thought
Now that we have established Where pine nuts come from, It’s pretty easy to get these pine nuts to people who want to buy them. First, the pine cones are dried out until the seeds come loose and the scales open.
After that, the seeds are shaken out and dried some more. After that, they need to be broken up and brushed to get rid of the thin brown layer that covers them.
Finally, the white kernels are ready for people who love pine nuts and are willing to pay any price the market asks.
As far as I can tell, eating Pinoli Premium Pine Nuts will not cause you to get “pine mouth.” Everything we sell is made from 100% European Stone pine (P. pinea).
Next year, I’ll be trying out some other interesting species, but I promise I’ll never grow and sell any Armand pine!
