This picture looks like baby poop, but it smells and tastes delicious.
Did you know that in northwest New Mexico, the Native American's harvest pine nuts off the Pinyon Pine tree? In fact, this harvest is protected by treaties made long ago with our government.
One of my most delicious cherished childhood memories is harvesting Pinyon Pine nuts with my uncle who is Native American. He took a group of his offspring and myself up to the mountains, to the reservation were he was born and his family still lived.
There, we shimmied through fences marking tribes land. The sharp smell of pine hung in the mountain air. The pine needles were thick under our feet.
At about six, I stood out like a sore thumb. I had the vague feeling that myself and my blond-haired blue-eyed cousin (she was from my aunt's first marriage) were viewed with suspicion. I also had the feeling we really weren't supposed to be on the pinyon picking grounds, being about as white as ivory soap, but as my uncle didn't seem to care, then we didn't care either.
I can't remember HOW we got the pine cones off the trees. I seem to remember some shaking of the tree. I do remember picking them up from the ground and placing them in scratchy burlap bags. We gathered them and then put them in my uncle's big red shiny truck.
We took them back to his parent's house, back on the reservation. There we roasted them in the oven, and tried to get all the sticky sap off our hands. I remember eating and eating those delicious nuts, the warm smells of roasting pine, the homeyness of the adobe house, and the kind people. The people who welcomed a brown haired, skinny, scraggly looking gringo kid into their life. At least for a moment.
My uncle's family was most amused that I ate the pine nuts without shelling them. They were such little nuts, and the shells hard for my small hands to get off, that I just didn't bother. I'm sure I got more than my share of fiber.
In all, I probably ate $100's of dollars of product. But no one seemed to mind. I'm not even sure if they sold them for profit or just collected them for their own personal use. It seemed to be a party of sorts, with everyone enjoying the fruits of our labors. My uncle told me that Pinyon trees don't fruit every year. In fact wikipedia states:
"The pinyon pine nut (seed) species will take 18 months to complete its maturity; however, to reach full maturity, the environmental conditions must be favorable for the tree and its cone.
Development begins in early spring with pollination. A tiny cone, about the size of a small marble, will form from mid-spring to the end of summer; the premature cone will then become and remain dormant (with a cessation of growth) until the following spring. The cone will then commence growth until it reaches maturity near the end of summer.[6] The mature pinyon pine cone is ready to harvest ten days before the green cone begins to open. A cone is harvested by placing it in a burlap bag and exposing it to a heat source such as the sun to begin the drying process. It takes about 20 days until the cone fully opens. Once it is fully open and dry, the seed can be easily extracted in various ways. The most common and practical extracting method used is the repeated striking of the burlap bag containing the cone(s) against a rough surface to cause the cone(s) to shatter, leaving just the job of separating by hand the seed from the residue within the bag.
Another option for harvesting is to wait until the cone opens on the tree (as it naturally will) and harvest the cone from the pinyon pine, followed by the extracting process mentioned above. Fallen seed can also be gathered beneath the trees.[7] "
Pine nuts retail in today's market for between $15-$20 a lb. A little pricey for the typical home cook. But pine nuts have been used as a food source for thousands of years. They grow in Europe, Asia, and the United States.
One of my favoriate things to do with pine nuts is to make a good basil pesto. It's great homemade, but at that price. I'm usually stuck buying those little jars of basil pesto. Still a little expensive, but managable if you catch them on sale and stock up.
So after I've spent all that time talking about pine nuts and my love for them, I've never actually purchased them. In fact, here in the Midwest they are pretty hard to find in the grocery store. I'm going to shock you and tell you how I discovered you can make a great pesto at home without cracking open the safe or spending $30 in gas zipping around the city looking for a store that sells pine nuts.
I found a recepie from the web site, Half Hour Meals (http://www.halfhourmeals.com/recipe/basil-pesto) for an easy basil pesto and thought I would give it a try. The secrete ingreatient? Walnuts. Much more readily found and hence much less expensive. They are about half the price of pine nuts.
Easy Basil Pesto
2-3 fresh garlic cloves
1/4 cup Walnuts
4 cups fresh basil leaves
3/4 cup Olive Oil
1 cup Parmesan cheese; grated
to taste Salt And Pepper
In a blender or food processor add 2-3 fresh garlic
cloves and 1/4 cup walnuts and whirl till coarsely chopped. Measure 4 cups of fresh basil leaves - lightly packed. Rinse, pat dry and toss into blender with 3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil - blend until smooth. Add salt and pepper to taste. Either blend in or whirl in 1 cup of Parmesan cheese. Store in an air tight container. Can be frozen in induivual portions.
In my next post, I will post my favorite weeknight meal that uses pesto as the sauce that ties it all together!
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