For the most part, the seeds are harvested by hand, which contributes to their expensive price. Pine seeds are found in pineapples and take about 18 months to mature. Since pine nuts are ready to harvest about 10 days before the cone starts to open, they are very difficult to remove. Pine nuts ripen in late summer or autumn, and this is when you start harvesting pine nuts.
First, you will need pines with low branches that contain open and unopened pine cones. The easiest way to get the pine nuts out of the cone is to simply place the pine cones and let them dry on their own. It will take a few weeks, but the pineapples will open. Then you can hit the pineapples and the seeds will fall out.
First, The Spruce Eat explains that while pine nuts are found in the seemingly ubiquitous pine cone, it's a long and nutty process before you can open them. It can take 15 to 25 years before trees begin to produce the seeds that contain these pine nuts. Once they do, another 18 months pass before they are ready to harvest. Pine nut suppliers begin the seed collection process within 10 days of opening the pine cone.
Everything is done by hand, and while patience is a virtue, cones are often placed in burlap bags for 20 days and left in the sun to aid in the process. The cones are then broken to extract the pine nut seeds and the secondary shell is removed. Talk about a lot of work for a little crazy, right? So why bring the whole pussy home? I can see the nuts almost falling out of the cones that are still attached to the tree. Unless you can find a stray Italian stone pine planted somewhere as a gardening tree, oriental pine nuts are too small or have shells that are too difficult to disturb.
You can even detect a slight piney flavor, but it will be subtle, as these nuts are considered to be soft and sweet to the taste buds. First hang a tarp around the tree you want to harvest and then, higher up on the tree, suspend the small bird net over the canvas to keep the creatures out and hopefully, as the cones open, the sprockets will fall through the net and get caught by your tarp. We know that pine nuts are one of the most expensive nuts on the market and they are not easy to work with in the long term. If you've ever bought pine nuts in the store, you're likely eating Chinese imports that are often of dubious origin.
They are expensive due to the time required to grow the nuts and the effort to harvest the seeds from their protective cover. While they can be enjoyed in their raw form, roasting pine nuts really brings out some of those background flavors, making them even more delicious. But pine nuts are free in nature, you just need to know the methods of foraging them and spend some time patiently breaking them. According to WebMD, an ounce of pine nuts, estimated to be just over 160 of these young babies, contains 191 calories and 19 grams of fat, so if you decide to enjoy pine nuts, follow the Greek motto of Pan metron Ariston or everything in moderation.
I was hoping someone would have a good way to get the nut out of the cone without having to bother her. There is an easy alternative method; if it is already late in the season and the pineapples have opened, you can use this method to collect the pine nuts. The fact that it requires a lot of time and patience is an understatement and justifies the high price of pine nuts around the world.
