Pines and pine nuts.

[Lostvalleyguy]

We have a couple varieties of pine trees up at the cabin the largest of which are the Ponderosa pines. These have a fairly large cone. I decided one day to take a cone from the tree and open it up to see if there were any seed. The squirrels love these cones so I thought ... pine nuts! After an hour of tearing the cone apart, getting coated in pine sap, and removing the woody casing on the seeds, I found them. Unfortunately the pine nuts were about the size of sesame seeds.
I assume the commercial varieties come from some other pine tree. Has anyone tries this and know what makes a good variety for decent sized pine nuts?

 

[firelily99]

If the pine cones have opened up it means that the nuts are gone. From what I have read it is kind of problematic to get the nuts out of the cones but supposedly if you soak the cones for a few days the nuts will come out. It is kind of a messy process but who knows, you may like doing it!

 

[DDavies]

I was curious about this too! I haven't tried to find the nuts but will definitely take the advice about soaking them. I've even debated whether or not I could stalk a squirrel to see what they do to get the nuts.

 

[firelily99]

The pine nuts are the edible seeds of the pine trees and are found in the pine cones. If the pine cones are open then the nuts are probably gone. The seeds are approximately 1/2" long and are a creamy color. There are roughly twenty species of pines that have nuts that can be harvested. Frankly, the task of harvesting and cooking them is highly labor intensive and probably costs more than it would to buy them.

 

[lemonzest]

I have a friend who does (or at least used to) do this and it sounded like a giant PITA to me.

IIRC he would pick the pinecones when they were closed (but close to opening) and put them in a bag for a few days to sit in the sun, so they could ripen and open without animals getting to them. Then he would basically shake the nuts out.

That part sounds easy enough (except the climbing the tree and getting sap all over yourself) but then you have to shell each of the little things, which by this point I would have lost interested

The nuts do vary by species, the ones he had were pretty small compared to what you generally see at stores. But there's a whole variety beyond that with the Mediterranean ones being the tastiest IMHO.

 

[Becky]

That part sounds easy enough (except the climbing the tree and getting sap all over yourself) but then you have to shell each of the little things, which by this point I would have lost interested

Sounds like Mr Wonka had the right idea by using specially trained squirrels

I love pine nuts in cooking but they cost so much for a tiny bag... shame it's not something you can easily get yourself.

 

[Silentrunning]

I tried harvesting pine nuts from our southern slash pines. ONCE! I will gladly pay the high price in the grocery store from now on.