I loved to hunt pine nuts with my grand parents. After the first frost opened the cones, we headed for the hills. Ever hunt for pine nuts? I’m not talking about walking through your favorite grocery store looking for a large bag of expensive (about $14/pound) shelled pine nuts to use on your salad, but actually searching through the sagebrush to find those elusive pinyon trees with cones that contain the edible seeds.
Unfortunately, a good crop is produced only every 3-7 years depending on weather conditions. Traditions say that if there was a plentiful crop, the coming winter would be hard. Native Americans gathered and stored pine nuts to supplement their food supply. Ground up to make a mush or roasted to eat, these small kernels were a good source of protein.
Harvesting the nuts was tedious work as the trees have a sticky pitch or sap on them. This pitchlike gum can be picked off the pine trees to chew. It tasted like gum but took a lot of chewing to get a gumlike texture. Then you had very sticky fingers and hands to clean off. Wearing a hat or scarf kept sap off your head and hair––always a good idea.
It was physically demanding work to climb the pinyon trees and collect their cones. My grandpa liked to place a tarp under a pine tree then shake the limbs to get the unopened cones or ripened nuts to drop. Unopened cones had to be gathered then left in a burlap bag in the sun or roasted in an oven. After the nuts were out of the cones, the work was not over. Pine nuts are covered by a hard brown shell that needs to be cracked before reaching the soft center inside. I loved the taste of freshly roasted nuts even though it was a lot of work.
Pine nuts ripen around deer hunting time so when we went out to collect them, we always wore bright colored clothing for safety. It’s now possible to buy pine nuts from local vendors selling them on the side of the road in the fall. Though their price is lower than grocery store prices, there’s nothing like the joy of actually getting out in the hills and hunting your own pine nuts with beloved family members by your side.
You did some of the neatest things Lin...My grandparents took us to museums..they were teachers...
ReplyDeleteI love pine nuts too, The ones you can buy for cooking, already shelled, in the stores are not anywhere near as yummy as the ones picked and roasted at home. The trouble is, once you start eating, it is hard to stop. We never messed with the cones though, too sticky. We just picked the fallen nuts.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed this post. We hunted and gathered lots of stuff when I was a kid, too.
ReplyDeleteAnd now I know why pine nuts are so expensive. I substitute walnuts, one the things we harvested, dried and shelled as I was growing up in the Willamette Valley of Oregon.
Yup! We gathered pine nuts as a family for several years. My dad loved them!
ReplyDeleteOne year when I was about 19, my roommate and I found a large stand of pinions and she climbed to the top of a tree and began to chuck cones down to me. We didn't have a tarp, and we were afraid that too many nuts could be lost if we just threw them to the ground, so I put on an old pair of daddy's work gloves that were in the trunk of the car and caught them as she threw them.
My left hand began to itch. So I took of the leather glove and was oohhhing and aahhing while scratching it when Faith tossed a huge pine cone down to me. I instinctually caught the dang thing. OWWUUUUCH!!! I screamed and she scampered down the tree like some overgrown squirrel and helped me dislodge the extremely prickly, excessively sticky cone from my flesh. Do I have memories of hunting for pine nuts, you ask?
Oh yeah!
I love em as much as my dad did. But, now we just buy a big bag from Costco. I add them to hot cereal, cold cereal, salads, tuna sandwiches, spaghetti sauce... all kinds of stuff. yum!
My first real pine nut from the cone was during our move to Utah. We stopped at Mesa Verde and my mom picked some from a cone on the ground. I love them.
ReplyDeleteWe are planning a pinon picking trip this weekend. I have heard that there is a good crop this year. How funny you would blog about it just as we are getting ready to pick some. Must be the time of year.
ReplyDeleteThis is so interesting. I love pine nuts but didn't exactly know where in the pine cone they came from or what kind.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing this. I have never done it but often wondered how.
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