ONE OF THE WORLD LARGEST PINE NUTS PRODUCER
PINE NUTS
Pine nuts are edible kernels extracted from the seed of a variety of species of pine tree. The seeds are typically thick-shelled and grow inside of pine cones that look very similar to the pine cones that grow on other pines grown only for timber. Cone harvesting and extraction and preparation of the kernels are time-consuming and costly – contributing to the high prices at which pine nuts sell.
Pine nuts are highly nutritious and keep well for many months if stored properly in dry, cool conditions and out of direct sunlight. They are extremely versatile in cooking due to their mild flavor, creamy and subtle when raw and richer and nuttier when lightly toasted. They add interest, flavour and texture to many sweet and savoury dishes. They are a truly natural product – essentially unchanged over many millenia – requiring no insecticides or fungicides to either grow the trees or prepare the kernels for market.
An Old Friend
By some counts there are as many as eighteen different pine species that have been or are now customarily used as food for humans. These grow across North America, Europe and Asia. Pine nuts have been an important food source for thousands of years. Roman soldiers took them as campaign food when they raided Britain over 2000 years ago. Even before that, Greek authors mentioned pine nut trees as food producers around 300 BC, and it is thought that earlier societies used them and transplanted them throughout the Mediterranean region to Israel and even Georgia and the Black Sea between 6,000 and 10,000 years ago. A smaller group of the larger, tastier and easier-to-collect species has survived the transition from hunter-gatherer and local farmer societies to the modern world of global trade.
POPULAR MODERN
PINE NUTS
​
-
Chinese pine nuts (Pinus koraiensis). These form the bulk of world supply and are almost always the pine nut you will find if you buy from a supermarket bulk-bin in New Zealand, Australia and many other parts of the world. They have a shorter triangular or teardrop shape, with a distinctive brown tip and are actually sourced over a wide area including north-east China, south-east Russia, the Korean peninsular and Japan.
​
-
European stone pine nuts (Pinus pinea). The pine nut of Mediterranean cooking from Spain, Italy, southern France, Greece, the middle east, Turkey and North Africa. They are preferred in Europe over Chinese nuts and sell for a significant premium. They are occasionally available in other regions but usually in very small packets at very high prices. European stone pine nuts are longer and more torpedo-shaped than the Chinese nuts.
​
-
Siberian pine nuts (Pinus sibirica). A widespread species found through south-central Siberia and into the Russian far-east. They are rather small and rounded nuts but revered among Siberians as a food of high status and health benefits. They probably find their way at the margins into the large Chinese nut supply and sometimes end up in western supermarkets as a result.
​
-
Himalayan or Chilgoza pine nuts (Pinus gerardiana). Chilgoza pine nuts are a little longer and more slender than any other species. They are harvested from forests in Afghanistan, Pakistan and parts of northern India and are used locally and sometimes available in markets in Europe and elsewhere in Asia.
​
-
Pinon or pinyon pine nuts (Pinus edulis, Pinus monophylla and several other pinon pines of more restricted range). A historically important food for native American tribes of the southwest (Colorado, Utah, Nevada, New Mexico and northern Mexico) and now highly sought after by residents throughout the region. They are medium sized nuts requiring good harvesting technique to manage the sticky pine pitch on the cones, and often sold in the shell which is thinner and easier to crack than many other species.
​
-
Mexico has the world’s largest array of pine species and some of these have limited natural range but produce edible nuts that can be locally important. One of these species produces a pink pine nut. Another produces the world’s largest pine nuts (Pinus maximartinezii) but it is a very rare tree and fully protected.
​
-
California has three species (Pinus coulteri, Pinus sabiniana and Pinus torreyana) that produce notable edible pine nuts used historically by native Americans, but they are not significant in modern commerce because of the scattered occurrence of trees and high harvesting costs.
​
-
The Swiss nut pine (Pinus cembra) is found through the mountains of central Europe. It has beautiful purple cones with bright tan coloured nuts. In addition to eating the nuts, Italians use the nut shells to flavor and color local grappa.
​
-
St David’s pine (Pinus armandii) is a highly regarded species in South West china. It produces a small and round-shaped nut.
European stone pine nuts take a full three years to mature on the tree, the longest maturation period of any pine species. Each year, during the growing season, a few cells in the buds at the very tips of the crown differentiate as cone-producing cells. In the following spring as the buds begin to swell, the growing conelet first becomes visible, looking like a tiny pineapple the size of a large pea. The trees also produce pollen from separate pollen “flowers” during spring of this first season and the conelets open up to trap the pollen so that the embryos tucked inside can be fertilized. If the timing of the opening of the conelet misses this pollen season, the conelet just withers and dies. Those that open at the right time and get fertilized grow and expand to the size of a small marble by the on-set of the following winter. During the next spring and summer seasons, the cones fill out to the size of a small plum. In the third year, they reach full size (about the size of a grapefruit) and turn from bright lime green to purple-nut brown, as the third winter sets in. That’s when they are ready to harvest - during the late winter or spring of their third year - and before the following summer conditions dry out the cones enough for them to shed their seed. They produce new cones every year but about every third year is a particularly heavy cone season, known as a mast year.
