If you like wild food, or local food, or raw food, or free food – this is the time of year and perfect location to take advantage of something luscious.
Now and for the next several weeks, with nuts positively bursting from their cones, the Colorado piñon pine (Pinus edulis) beckons to all harvesters.
For Native American societies in the Southwest and Great Basin, the piñon nut is a traditionally important food and also a cultural symbol representing life, health and social unity.
Among the Navajo, the Pueblos, the Jicarilla Apache and other cultures, the fall piñon nut harvest continues to be a way to reaffirm and solidify kinship ties. Navajo wisdom holds that when the rabbit brush blooms, the piñon harvest can begin.
Colorado piñon pines grow naturally in our area at elevations between 4,500 feet and 7,500 feet, just below the zone dominated by ponderosa pines. Their nuts are not produced in quantity until the tree is 75 to 100 years old, but piñons can continue to bear for a few centuries.
It’s a wonder so few Durangoans bother to gather the bounty, but piñon nuts – rich in protein and high in mono- and polyunsaturated fats – are appreciated by a huge fan club of winged and four-legged members.
Most famous, perhaps, is Gymnorhinus cyanocephalus: the pinyon jay, a completely blue, robin-sized bird with a relatively long, strong bill specialized for feeding on the nuts of pine trees. Each jay stores thousands of nuts yearly. Because of landmarks and visual cues, jays are able to recover about 75 percent of their caches.
During peak season, local cooks can easily cache enough nuts in 20 minutes to flavor and fortify several meals. A sprinkle of pine nuts, maybe 2 or 3 tablespoons, on anything from salad to pancakes enhances a meal for two.
And, what a pleasure to eat them out of hand – freshly plucked from the cone! Just crack the shell between your teeth like a sunflower seed. A fresh kernel will be plump and creamy white. For best flavor and nutrition, don’t shell the nuts until you’re ready to use them.
To begin, find a mature tree with open cones and dark brown nuts peeking out from their individual ledges. Piñon nuts tumble naturally from their cones to the ground but can easily be coaxed out with fingers or beaks. (Pinon jays do have an advantage here.)
Another method is to pick whole cones from the tree then shake the nuts out into a bag. The only real hazard of harvesting piñon nuts is the super-sticky sap that drips from cones and branches. Cooking oil or hand sanitizer removes it from skin, but it’s best to wear old clothes and shoes while harvesting.
Shelling piñon nuts takes some patience. They should be rinsed and dried first. I like to place one nut at a time on a wooden cutting board then use a small hammer to crack the shell. After a few tries, you learn just how hard to tap the shell to make a clean crack.
Want to try for several pounds? Lay a tarp or sheet underneath the tree and have someone small climb the trunk to shake the branches for a hail of nuts. Another method is to lay on the ground with a long pole to whack the cone-covered branches. A gathering permit from the Bureau of Land Management office is only required if you intend to harvest more than 25 pounds from public lands, so the mildly ambitious harvester doesn’t need to worry.
Dark brown nuts are more likely to be fresh and tasty than light brown ones. Unshelled, a perfectly plump nut, one that completely occupies all the space inside its shell, will sink in water. A bad nut or even a not-so-great nut will float. It’s a useful test, especially when nothing less than perfection will do.
According to Dayer LeBaron owner of WholeSalePineNuts.com, this year’s Pinus edulis harvest is the best in 15 years. He should know, after harvesting piñon nuts for 40 years and learning the work at his father’s knee. LeBaron said that because piñon pines need two years to produce one crop of nuts, stressors like insects, diseases and extreme weather have more opportunity to ruin the harvest. He cites early melting snowpack as one of the biggest threats to a good piñon year.
Piñon nuts are far more popular on European tables than they are here. Most Americans were introduced to them when basil pesto gained attention back in the 1980s. Since that time, both mainstream and specialty grocery stores offer shelled pine nuts imported from Europe, China, Turkey or Pakistan. As a result, most cooks are familiar only with foreign varieties, while nuts from the extensive wild piñon groves of the Southwest United States remain largely neglected.
The most common native European variety is the pignolia nut of the Italian stone pine, native to the Mediterranean region, grown mostly on well-established plantations in Spain, Portugal, Italy and North Africa. Pignolia nuts have the distinction of being the only nuts used predominantly for cooking. For many centuries they’ve been blended with meats, fish and poultry, and have been used in countless different sauces.
Our Colorado piñon nuts are just as delectable as the storied pignolias of Europe and more delicious than the imported varieties sold in stores. Whether you make your own harvest or are lucky enough to run into a roadside stand, you’ll want to enjoy this best local harvest in 15 years. So, be like that pinon jay – who knows when your next chance might come along?