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ABOUT OUR Pine Nut  Forest

RENO, Nev. — Commercial pine nut gathers are betting on a good crop this year on public lands in central and eastern Nevada.

The Bureau of Land Management says a recent auction fetched more than $35,000, with commercial gatherers predicting 144,500 pounds.

Commercial bidders speculate on the probability of the pine nut crop and pay a price per pound. This year the bids were for 25 cents per pound, but BLM officials add there's no guarantee they will be able to harvest the total pounds purchased.

Members of the public may collect up to 25 pounds of pine nuts per person for free.

From  Penniless Parenting:

 Alternatively titled "I now know why these things are so friggin expensive".

Or "Don't try this at home if you want to keep your sanity."

Ok, so the first alternative title is accurate, but the second is slightly a stretch of the truth. It won't exactly make you crazy if you do this, but yes, you'd have to be nuts to repeatedly forage for pine nuts. I've been procrastinating posting this piece because uhh... you'll see why in a bit.

But at the request of some of the readers, I thought I'd share with you the methodology of foraging pine nuts, adding in my less than amusing experiences (ok, they're funny, but not when they happen to you), and little tips you can do to make it easier for you, should you be stubborn enough to try this for yourself.

 First, find a bunch of pine trees with easily accessible branches. Make sure that the branches have both opened and unopened pine cones. (If there are no open pine cones, it likely means that the pine cones on the tree aren't yet fully ripe.) You want the closed pine cones- the open ones have already lost their nuts, and in most likelihoods, the animals have already eaten them up. Carefully twist the closed pine cones until they come off the tree, making sure not to get sticky sap on your hands (it's worse than super glue!), and put the pine cones all into a bag. Once your bag is full, take the lot home with you. Pine cones are comprised of many overlapping scales. Within each scale there are one or two pine nuts, depending on the species. Heat and/or dryness causes the scales to open up, releasing the nuts within.

Apparently, if you just leave your bag of pine cones alone long enough, they'll release their nuts on their own. But no, I'm not like that. I wanted to do as much as I could, as quickly as I could. What I did was: (No, this is the part you absolutely should not be trying at home unless you happen to enjoy breathing in smoke for at least two weeks and potentially needing to call the fire department.) I popped a pine cone into a container in the microwave. I didn't believe that the heat would really cause it to open up (after all, the only information I could get out there was from ehow.com, and you can't take their word for anything!) and I wanted to test one out quickly before I tried doing the lot.

 For the first two minutes, a really relaxing pine scent perfumed my kitchen. I took out the pine cone, and- low and behold- the scales in fact did started popping open. So excited was I that I took it over to the table and used my nails to pry apart the scales the rest of the way to take out the pine nut seeds. I did that for a bit, but eventually my fingers started hurting. My nails were threatening to separate from my thumbs. Oh yes- I exclaimed! I don't need to work this hard. Just pop it back into the microwave for a few more minutes and it'll open up the rest of the way. I won't have to pry apart the scales anymore... And that's where I went wrong.

 Less than 30 seconds later, I saw flames inside my microwave and plumes of putrid brown smoke billowing out of the top, bottom, and sides of the microwave. I opened the door as quickly as I could, took the half melted container with the burning cone inside, dumped it in the sink, and poured water on it to douse out the flames. >Opened pine cones, out of the oven.

What remained was a hunk of plastic, some charred ashen remains of the pine cone, a house so filled with smoke that you could gag when entering, even after airing out the house for a few days. Oh, and my microwave? It's permanently colored a putrid brown now. Yea, don't try this at home.

Pine cones are very easily flammable! After the initial fiasco, I was hesitant to do anything else with the rest of the cones, but I gathered up my courage, placed them in an oven tray, and popped them in the oven on 350 until they all popped open.

 This time I had no fires to worry about, and only the pleasantest of aromas emanated. Once all the scales opened up, I took out the lot.

 Wings and seeds. I've read that each type of pine cone has different seeds, but I only have experience with the species that I picked. The seeds of the pine cones that I got were roughly the size of an orange seed, with brown and black mottled shells and brown wings. These covered the bottom of the oven tray.

Prying out seeds was unnecessary for the most part- they fluttered out everywhere, onto the oven tray, table, floor, etc. They just took their merry old time. Shaking helped them get a move on. Pine nuts in their shells. Eventually I figured out that I could put the lot in a big fabric shopping bag, tie it closed, and bash it against the wall repeatedly. This helped me vent my frustration, made my kids crack up, encouraged the seeds to come out of the cone, and kept the mess to the barest minimum.

Then Lee and I went through the wings, taking out the seeds, and putting them into a container. I'm not sure which the hardest part here was- picking out tiny seeds from among papery wings, or the 3 or 4 times little Ike picked up the container with all the pine nuts and spilled them all over the floor!

 Ok, no competition. Ike messing up the hard work wins, hands down. Once we took out as many seeds as we had the energy to do, we set about to crack those tiny shells to get to the nut flesh inside. Have you ever cracked sunflower seeds? These are the same idea. You do it with your teeth. Little pine nuts. Not much bigger than sesame seeds. Have you ever cracked watermelon seeds? Yea, that's more similar. Trying to deal with really small shells doesn't make things easy. Now these are even smaller than watermelon seeds!

Ok, and this is why I was procrastinating so much to post this post. I was hoping I'd have a container filled with shelled pine nuts to take a picture to show you the end results. Only a month later, most of the pine nuts are sitting there in their shells, and this was all I managed to get for a picture. Yes, they're teeny, tiny little pine nuts. From what I've read, there are species with much larger nuts. I don't know. I have yet to try them. This work is very annoying and very frustrating. So. Am I glad I did this? Or was it a complete waste of time? Well, it was a waste of time.

But I did gain something. I gained the knowledge that I'd rather go without pine nuts than do this again. I gained the knowledge how exactly to do this, so if I ever was in a survival situation and I needed to know how to do this, I could. I gained the information about how exactly this is done. I gained appreciation for the harvesters of pine nuts that are sold in the stores, and now I really, truly, absolutely understand why pine nuts are outrageously priced in the stores. Would I ever do this again? Yes. Sort of.

My husband works in a job with lots of down time. He likes to crack and eat sunflower seeds, because it gives him something to do with his time. He's not eating those seeds for the nourishment, rather for the activity that eating them provides. He requested that I take pine cones, roast them, and then send them along with him to work. He said he'd gladly eat these as munchies. Hope you enjoyed hearing about my kitchen fiasco, as well as learning how to harvest pine nuts.

 Do you ever use pine nuts in recipes?

 If you don't, how do you usually replace them in recipes?

How much do pine nuts cost per pound where you live?

Do pine trees grow in your area?

Do you think you'd ever try doing this, or did I discourage you from even trying?

 Lastly- when was the last time YOU had a fire in your kitchen, or that you filled your whole entire house with smoke? I love to hear.

 DIY PINE NUT HARVESTER AND PROCESSOR

For Valentine's Day, George made a pine nut sheller for me. My goodness, what a gift. We kept thinking about the story of the woman who invented a shelling machine in 1917.

 

He made a mock up for than $20.00 and I thought he was incredibly awesome!!

The project could be easily replicated.This is pretty self-explanitory. The drawback of this method of shelling is sizing. We developed alternative technology that does not require sizing. If you size your pine nuts before you put them through, you are looking at a 65 - 75% success rate using this method of shelling. This was George Frazier's first design .

This design is posted for non-commercial reproduction and highly suggested for impressing any woman who loves freshly shelled nuts. It sure is fun and the trick is to put in screws so you can adjust the cone for the size of the nuts. Of course, other devices out there in the $1,400 - $2.500.00 range. I am not sure any of those would shell pine nuts as well as George's $20.00 valentine's day version.

FREE PINE NUT SHELLERS FOR SMALL COMMERCIAL KITCHENS- Latest news on special offer!

 We were offering 25 shellers free with 1,000 lb contracts of pine nuts. We did not have enough nuts to go forward with this plan. It was an exceptionally lean harvest, with a number of unforeseen challenges. We just returned from working in Nevada and I found some great emails waiting for me. Client feedback really helps us shape our work.

That really sounded good to me. I want people to connect with and eat their forests. We are thinking that we will sell some of our shellers to people or groups like this gentleman's. The pine nut shellers are entirely food grade, foot peddle opperated, shell and peel 80 -95% of the pine nuts, cleanly without sizing or roasting. The shellers will run about $1,000.00 and will go first to our clients . We have some clients that have been with us for 15 years. (They are like the family you hear from once a year!) The shellers will shell about 10 lbs per hour. They require a person to operate the machine and they are foot controlled. George is working on a more "industrial" style of pine nut sheller. I have no doubt he can produce it. The guy is awesome!! We are behind on our farm product orders but if you are interested in a sheller, feel free to email george mailto:ozarkdomes@gmail.com

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE PRICE OF PINE NUTS - Why have pine nuts gotten SO expensive?

If you haven't bought pine nuts lately, brace yourself for sticker shock. Prices have more than doubled over the past year or so. (can you say, "tripled")The article goes on to quote a Texas pine nut wholesale pine nut supplier, who last year was subjected to a major pine nut recall over Salmonella, "The good ones only come from China and Portugal," she says, and the Chinese crops have been poor lately.

Now, the most self serving comment - unpatriotic, as well as ignorant," "The good ones only come from China and Portugal," That is simply self-serving as that wholesale pinenut supplier sells container loads from China.

Our partner company, A Wild Crops Farm, is a certified organic food processor. Even though our pine nuts are not certified organic wild crop, we handle and process as if they were. It is both our formal training in food handling,(HACCP) and documentation - pounded in through certification and audits, together with our personal "earth ethic" that makes a difference.

Last year, we had developed a cost effective pine nut sheller and had a number manufactured, with the intent of giving them away with wholesale pine nut contracts.Even as we developed our sheller, we worked to create a product that was compliant with organic standards because that is our way of working with foods.

It has to be that coyote thing, as I have pine nut shellers, 20 + clients wanting to buy 1,000 lbs and no pine nuts to wholesale! I was challenged by a "pine nut group" to sell 25,000 lbs of pine nuts for the 2010 season. I told those people, selling pine nuts is not a problem, getting in the harvest is. I told you so, is not much comfort. Met the challenge, as it is part of my fire -sign personality, only to have the supply faltered- and the group wasn't culturally compatible.

Not only that, but we have a HUGE list of people - wanting to purchase our American shelled pine nut 8 oz sample pack for $19.95 plus shipping. Okay, enough of the lamenting! I am going to have to raise our prices, as the supply is so slim. It is suppose to be the perfect place for business - demand far exceeding supply. It feels so wrong, because for the last 15 years, we have been trying to protect pine nut forests from deforestation on public lands. I could look 100 public land managers in the eye and say, "I told you so." small comfort!

Who, What, When, How and Why of George Frazier's amazing little pine nut processor

In 2009 company launched 30 spammy web sites in a link scheme offering pine nuts in attempted to scam a top place on google.  Being a woman with 5 planets in fire, there was a fire in my belly as a matter of principal. I  work  hard and take my responsibilty to the forests as the  heart  of my work with wild products.  It was offensive that someone would launch a scam like this . I saw it as, an assault upon the forest's bounty- not just a business manuver, but something very different. That is where my fire enages, as the forest is like my children - loved deeply.

 Competition is good and when people are comfortable- things stay the same.  The advice I was given by white hat SEO folks, was take care of  your site- work at making it better; it will all sort out in the end and there are no real shortcuts.    My husband, George saw the intensity with which I worked and did something very special for me.  

George Frazier designed and built an American Pine Nut sheller, specically for my Grade AA Jumbo soft shelled pine nuts. My husband, George Frazier - has incredible mechanical and design abilities. For days we ran tests and I had eaten so many pine nuts   that I was ready to burst. It a home sheller and is beautiful and it works and I am thrilled. He did this because he loves me.

 In turn, I bought him the best chainsaw I could buy. The salesman at the store said, "yes, nothing says love like a chainsaw." He did not know the half of it. I know it seems oximoronic .  In fact, this entire post is an O'Henry story with a positive twist. You have to understand that forest keeping sometimes means thinning.  It is like in the old days, when a person harvested a buffalo.  You take with reverence for the life and use all that you can.  There is a reciprocity that is natural, so long as the reverence is there. 

Then another irony, our pine nut business had to physically expanded. George had to place a new build on the pad for our homesite. There was no more room to grow, so he set aside space from his love, the geodesic building, for me and my nuts.  As a result, we have to clear more land for our work .   But, we needed logs for our mushrooms, (see, Curious George's garden in the drawer) and our forest in Missouri, was poorly logged, prior to us buying it.  A poorly logged forest leaves damaged, sick trees, lots of little trees competing for light in an unhealthy overstory.  We have learned  to take out the dead, diseased and out of balance trees for restoration.  

   The moral of the story: when people take their passion, hearts, minds and hands, create   from a space of love do so with intergrity and the world holds infinite possibilities, tremendous joyes and tangible results.  There are basic natural laws to everything.  As long as we follow them, we are okay - one does not try and cheat or short cut.  Thank you, George for the pine nut sheller, for trusting me enough to giving up things you love. The pine dryad's whisper was true. I am very grateful.

Global Supply of Pine Nuts and The Price of Pine Nuts in 2010

 Increased global interest will keep pine nut supplies short in 2010/11
Tuesday May 25 2010

FOLLOWING historically high prices of pine nuts seen in the 2009/10 season, of up to 25,000 ($31,047) to €26,000 per tonne, supply will still be short and prices stable going into the new crop, according to the pine nuts working group of the International Nut and Dried Fruit Council (INC), headed by Cheng Hung Kay, of CHK trading.

The total supply for 2010/11 is estimated at 19,740 tonnes, a marginal increase on the 19,330 tonnes available last year.

Comment by Penny -
A grain of salt on production rates @ 19,740 - I believe that is INC folks, rather than global. I don't think all the Russian folks buy into the group.  Regardless, those folks that are currently paying UNI $35.00 lb won't see any major price break for 2010/ 2011. There also the risk of pine nut mouth.

We have pine nut contracts available *US Production - $10.00 per pound, 1,000 lb minium order - comes with FREE PINE NUT SHELLER.  There are 17 spots left out of the 25 available places.  Delivery starts early / mid October.

What is up with the Global Price of Pine nuts?

Question: Why has the price of pine nuts gone up so so much in the last two years ? The price of pine nuts doubled between 2003 - 2005 and again in 2008- 2009.  While supplies have expanded, this is due to the high price making the nuts less affordable, and topping out sells. But, why has this happened?

# 1 Supply
# 2 Demand

The handwritting for the summer pine nut price spike has been on the wall since October 2009. Summer is pesto season and the demand for pine nuts skyrockets as the basil ripens. When the basil starts coming in, the demand for pine nuts goes through the roof. Pine nuts like all of the American nut crops are harvested in the fall, but the peak pine nut consumption comes during the summer.

Most foodies know their pine nuts are coming from China. There was a poor harvest in 2009. The price of pine nuts FOB China was seen as high as 43,000.00 USD per Metric Ton. It had gone down to $37,000.00 per metric ton and much of the pricing depended on the pine nut species. The same pine nuts were $7,000.00 - 13,000.00 per metric ton a few years ago. Basically, the price per pound of pine nuts has tripled over the last few years.

The Siberian species sells for less than the Korean one. (Siberian pine nuts are very much like the New Mexico Pine Nut species). However, given the global demand - the Siberian pine nuts being much less expensive than the Korean ones - the cheaper pine nut supply was exhausted. Large importers order in advance of the harvest and place their contracts early. There are about a half of dozen global agro-businesses which import pine nuts. The agro business importers thought the price increase was too much and purchased less than they might normally, hoping the price would go down. Those importers ran out of pine nuts and had to restock at higher rates. The least expensive pine nuts were sold out, therefore in restocking the importers needed to reorder the higher priced species. That, coupled with the change in currency is spiking the cost of pine nuts.

There is another factor in increase in the pine nut price. There had be price supports for exporters of pine nuts. Those were withdrawn and exporting cost rose a good deal. There is more of an incentive for pine nut producers in China to offer their wares within the country rather than export. People in China love pine nuts as do people in the Middle East, Europe, and the United States. I even had a call yesterday for pine nuts in South America. (Our phone rang off the hook yesterday - thus my motivation to answer some of the common questions about the pine nut market with the blog.)

As I see it, the rising cost of pine nuts ties into the pine nut mouth. There is such a huge demand for pine nuts, that I believe the harvests are starting too early. This in turn maybe contributing to the expanding problem of pine nut mouth. Additionally, non-traditional species of pine nuts may be mixed in with traditional ones. HOWEVER, the issue of pine nut mouth is a new problem and pine nuts have been around for 10,000 years. There is no recorded record of people having bitter tastes after consuming pine nuts over those milinum. People have gathered wild pine nuts as part of their diets for thousands of years, and the species they ate depended upon where they lived.

Watching all of these factors come together, helped Pinenut.com plan for a shelled American pine nut. Until the prices rose, it simply was not economically feasible. I love to being able to offer our clients American pine nuts for $10.00 per pound. We don't really want to be in the pine nut shelling business. That is where the American pine nut sheller comes in.  Until August, we are only going to sell 25 one thousand pound contracts for pine nuts @ $10.00 per pound. I know I can get 25,000 lbs of pine nuts to fill the contracts, but I might not be able to get say, 50,000 lbs of pine nuts to fill the orders for 50 free pine nut shellers.

There are only a handful of pine nut harvesters in the United States for the Jumbo soft shell. There is a limit to how much each of the pickers can pick during our pine nut season AND because the harvest of pine nus is a wild harvest there 100s of factors which determine yield. It could freeze early, there could be a fire, the snows could come and the pickers would all go home. Having worked with wild American pine nuts for close to 15 years, we learned to expect the unexpected.

HOW TO SAVE MONEY ON PINE NUTS and How to get fresh raw American Pine Nut Products!!

 

Are these beautiful or what? We shelled this bowl of pine nuts, fairly easily and quickly with George's pine nut sheller. Wnen a pine nut is perfectly fresh its color is bright white. The darker more carmel the the color, the more dehydrated or roasted the kernel is. While our sheller does not remove 100 % of the inner skin (brown membrane) it washes off fairly easily.

The sheller can also be used to shell roasted pine nuts and in those cicumstances, more of the inner skin is removed. There is no gumminess to these pine nuts, just the crisp sweet flavor the jumbo soft shell pine nut is known for. I am pretty excited about the sheller, because I have spent years telling people that shelling was the barrier to having the pinyon forest protected.

 Do you think the Federal Government would turn a tree that produces expensive, gourmet pine nuts into bio char or fuels? Oh that is right, see the Washington Post, wild harvest have no producers - tell that to the fishermen. Truly, I do not want to be in the business of selling shelled pine nuts, which is why we are giving away our shellers - 25 of them to cooperatives, small food processors, small pesto manufacturers, or other business enities.

The American Pine Nut sheller changes everything about the 50 million dolar market for imported pine nuts in the US.