Where do Pine Nuts come from?

Sometimes in life the answer can be staring you right in the face and you have never seen it before. A while ago, while walking the dogs in the forest we saw some people bashing pine cones over and over and over again. I had no idea what they were doing – getting rid of some pent up aggression??? My aunt who was walking with us pointed out that she thinks they could be trying to get pine nuts out of the pine cones.

Penny drops …

PINE nuts come from PINE cones. I have to be honest I had never given two minutes thought to where pine nuts came from – all I knew was that were hellishly expensive! Of course…those delicious little tasty nuts are found in pine cones on pine trees…what a revelation.

From that walk on, every pine cone I passed while walking the dogs was picked up and scrutinized to see if I could see a pine nut. I was unsuccessful until two days ago when the dogs picked up a pine cone and brought it to me to throw, that I saw a pine nut. I was so excited!!! The pine cone was half opened and I could see some more nuts inside! The pine cones keep their nuts under guard by strong fronds that make it incredibly hard to get the nut out. By the end of the walk my hands were filled with sticky resin (which by the way grips to your skin like super glue!) and I had 6 seed looking things and only one pine nut. Hmmmm now what???

I took the “seed/pip” things home and thought they might hold a nut (like a kernel inside an apricot pip). My husband cracked the pips open with some help from a nut cracker because that pip was not going down without a fight – goodness me they are strong and tough!!! Inside the pip lay a beautiful golden brown little pine nut, celebrations!!!! So after an hour of getting pips out of pine cones, scrubbing my hands of resin (which still has not come off my hands), cracking the pip open – I have 6 pine nuts, it’s not enough to make pesto but now I know where pine nuts come from and why they are so damn expensive.