The reasons are several: poor harvests, increased demand and ever-present climate change. And the prospects for change are not good. The domestic version of pine nuts comes from the west and southwest, produced by the pinion pine. The Forest Service and the Office of Land Management (BLM), Frazier explained, have historically seen little value in American pine nuts.
Tribal members from various nations across the country gather in what they call a blessed event where indigenous people collect pine nuts and celebrate the harvest with pow wows and talent shows. It's not that the taste for pine nuts has disappeared, the consumption of pine nuts, in fact, has almost doubled in the last decade. Grimo added that it is not the same as climbing a walnut tree, for example, since the branches of the pine are tighter. In recent years, LeBaron says he and other harvesters have also been turned away from obtaining commercial harvesting permits at previously productive sprocket locations in Nevada and Utah.
Meihekou County's annual pine nut processing capacity can reach 150,000 tons when it sources half of its raw materials from China and the other half from imports. Highest quality sprocket nuts harvested with fair trade and environmentally friendly business practices. Other research shows that pine nuts are almost impossible to grow successfully due to the time they take to grow and the limited environment in which they can grow. Seeing this, I started researching after paying a premium for Chinese pine nuts recently (something related to trade wars, I've been told).
Pine nuts grow in the forests of their home countries, China, Russia, North Korea and Pakistan, and not on farms. And, in some cases, the little nuts go on a globetrotting trip before they're ready to be thrown into a batch of pesto. Collecting pine nuts is a wonderful way to experience the fall abundance of Great Basin National Park. It's incredibly tasty and very tasty,” Linda Grimo, manager of Grimo Nut Nursery in Ontario, Canada, told TMRW.
Once harvested, the cones should be dried and heated so that they open wide enough to allow access to their nuts. This unexpected strong demand caused spot prices for sprockets to rise rapidly again and there is currently not enough stock in Europe to meet demand. We are proud to offer Pinyon Nevada JUMBO SOFT SHELL sprockets (crack them with your fingers) and New Mexico sprockets.
