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.