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Earth Day Spring 2012

The Pine Nut Sentential

I Pinus Practicale -

Contents

A $5.00 COUPON Shell Free Pinon Kernels 1

A Earth Day Gift - Free Pinyon Seedlings 2

"Tray of Togetherness" - A Mother's Gift of Tradition - 2

Feature: New Answer - Old Question "What is a Pine Nut" 4

Pinyon Science and ecology - 4

Grill Like 5- Star with Pinon Seasonings buy 1 get 1 Free 5

Pinyon Pine Nut Trivia 6

THE IS GOLD IN THEM THERE HILLS - Americans Discover Pine Nuts From Neveada (Ely Times) 6

Events and Apperances 6

Wild Harvests from the Ozarks 7

SWEET ENDINGS - 7

Pine Nut Ice Cream with hot fudge pinon sauce 7

A $5.00 COUPON Shell Free Pinon Kernels

$5.00 off any pine nut purchase of $10.00 or more. Coupon Code at check out: 5BESTNUTS

Big news - we now have both species of American Pinon Pine Nuts available in the kernel form - yes, shell free pinon nuts. We would like to offer you a $5.00 coupon code 5BESTNUTS to try our shell free pine nuts (pine nut kernels). Buy any two pine nut products-like a sample of hard shell New Mexico pinon and a sample of soft shell Nevada Pinyon nuts - shell free, use the code at check out to save $5.00 There is a small box to the right of the word voucher on the check out screen.

When you consider that it 2.5 lbs to make 1 pound of shell free pine nuts, the price is very reasonable. Also, because our pine nuts are dehydrated, you can rehydrate them and have twice the poundage. Use our coupon code and a sample is almost free. We only have a small amount of pine kernels and we want everyone to try them.

Spice it up with Pinyon Seasoning

A refillable spice grinder filled with Jumbo Soft shelled pine nuts that make adding pine nuts to your salads and cereals a snap. The grinder releases the full flavor of American pine nut on to your dish. It saves people a great deal of money and the ground pine nuts provide the flavor of a full kernel in a twist, which means you use fewer pine nut kernels. Save $5.00 and use your coupon code to try this new product. Limit one coupon per client. Buy one pound of each pine nut and receive a grinder free - no coupon needed.

A Earth Day Gift - Free Pinyon Seedlings

We have about 100 pinyon pine seedlings that I will gladly send our first 50 customers who request them on comments section of our order form. The seedlings will grow best under or around other pine trees. While the desert is the habitat of this amazing species, I am happy to send them anywhere they might be nurtured and cultivated. Should you wish to have the seedlings sent as a Mother's Day Gift, please note that in the comments We will ship the seedlings free of charge.

"Tray of Togetherness" - A Mother's Gift of Tradition -

Introduction -

I enjoy hearing people's family stories about harvesting or cooking with pinyon nuts. In January I was speaking with a client who told me about boiling pinyon in a coffee can. My response was, "Oh, your mother must have been a Shoshone woman." She replied, " No she was from China." I asked our client if she would mind sharing her family traditions with our readers and she sent us this wonderful story.

Indian Rice

My mother was an amazing woman. With her passing last year memories of the things she had taught us seem to pop up with every holiday, every celebration, every daily activity. Mom, Ngan Ling (translation:Song Bird) emigrated to the US from Hong Kong when she married my father, who himself had emigrated when he was 9. Both parents were hard workers, my father being a cook and my mother a sweat shop worker (seamstress in a basement sewing factory) although she was well educated and a teacher back in Hong Kong.My parents didn't earn much money, but they raised four children to whom they imparted old Chinese culture mixed with the newly adopted American one.

As Chinese New Year approached this year (January 23rd) I had a longing for pine nuts cooked in their shells, just the way my mother prepared them when I was a child growing up in San Francisco. Mom would call the pine nuts "Indian rice" in Chinese. Occasionally Mom would buy and prepare the pine nuts as a Chinese New Year's treat for the "Tray of Togetherness", a divided box which usually held candies, dried plums, sweetened coconut strips and dried red watermelon seeds in the middle section. The watermelon seeds symbolized fertility and fortune. The pine nuts would take the place of the customary seeds the few times when they made an appearance as they were very expensive, even back in those days (1950s-60s).Family and friends would enjoy the offerings in the Tray of Togetherness during the two weeks of the Chinese New Year's celebration.

My mother would cook the pine nuts in their shells two ways: boiling them in water and roasting them in a small fry pan. My favorite was the boiled method. The nuts would come out pearly and just heavenly to eat when warm. Many times I burned my fingers because I couldn't wait for the pine nuts to cool down. Mom would use an old pot to boil the pine nuts as they would leave the pot pitchy. It was always hard to clean the pitchy ring afterwards. Now I use an old one pound coffee can (metal coffee "cans" are becoming extinct!) to boil my pine nuts.

Pine nuts in shells are hard to find, even in Chinese markets. Thank goodness for the internet. I found PineNuts.com and with a quick delivery, I was able to share the magic of pine nuts with my daughter, who was visiting from Boston in January and just in time for the Chinese New Year. I was excited to share them with my sister Bennie from San Francisco as well as my son Matt, his wife Krissy and my grandson Isaac, all of whom were out for a visit from Boston in February. They helped with the preparation of the pine nuts (see pictures) and took some back with them to cook and enjoy at their homes. My sister was very excited to be reintroduced to the pine nuts and have since actually found them in a Chinese market in San Francisco. She says that they are small and not as good as the ones I gave her. My husband Bill and I enjoy the pine nuts with a little sherry or port.

Gathering around the table to eat freshly cooked pine nuts is priceless. Not only does it allow us to indulge our gastronomic senses but it brings the family together and continues a generational tradition.

Feature: New Answer - Old Question "What is a Pine Nut"

Consumers may soon see their pine nuts packages contain information that help them identify make better choices in purchasing pine nuts. It is certainly something pine nut lover would want to know. There have been a legal changes both in China and The European Union regulating which species of pines kernels can be sold as foods. These changes redefine pine nuts and are occurring as the result of the condition known as pine nut syndrome, a phenomena that disrupts for taste after consuming pine nuts. Most authorities agree the bitter taste disruption occur as a result of eating pine nut species that are inappropriate for human consumption. As a result of the government in China regulating the pine nut kernel species that could be exported.

People who studied the pine nut syndrome concluded that the rise in pine nut prices created such a demand for pine nuts that non-edible species of pine seed were included in the harvest. These nut specie in turn gave rise to a condition which causes a disruption in taste. The new laws for exporting pine nuts to the European Union require the pine nuts be specifically identified by species. Additionally, pine nut processors are to be trained to identify pine kernels from non -edible species.

This may create more issues for Americans who consume pine nuts. If a pine nut causes PNS in the E.U. the health inspectors are directed to pull the product as unfit for human consumption. Of course, this impacts everyone in the distribution chain No one wants to have 20,000 MT of pine nuts returned At this juncture - the unfit pine nuts could be sold in the US markets without fear. If you get PNS in the US, chances are the offending brand will ignore you or send some pat statement like:

".researchers have not found any safety issues.and it seems to affect a relatively small number of people.."

While US distributors of pine nuts are not required by law to report the species of pine, well informed consumers can force the issue. We absolutely promise that ANY pine nut product offer on www.pinenut.com will be species specific! There is another plus to this that US pine nut distributors have not yet discovered. ALL Species of pine nuts taste different - not unlike coffee beans. That is a good thing - companies might actually sell more pine nuts if people understood that each species has its own wonderful unique qualities.

Pinyon Science and ecology -

Excepts from the complete article at -

A new study finds that man-made noise has ripple effects on plants such as piñon pine, whose natural seed dispersers tend to avoid noisy areas. To find out what animal responses to noise might mean for plants, the researchers conducted a series of experiments from 2007 to 2010 in the Bureau of Land Management's Rattlesnake Canyon Wildlife Area in northwestern New Mexico.the researchers set out to find out what noise might mean for tree seeds and seedlings, using one of the dominant trees in the area - the piñon pine (Pinus edulis).

Piñon pine seeds that aren't plucked from their cones fall to the ground and are eaten by birds and other animals. To find out if noise affected the number of piñon pine seeds that animals ate, the researchers scattered piñon pine seeds underneath 120 piñon pine trees in noisy and quiet sites, using a motion-triggered camera to figure out what animals took the seeds.

After three days, a number of animals were spotted feeding on the seeds, including mice, chipmunks, squirrels, birds and rabbits. But two animals in particular differed between quiet and noisy sites -mice, which preferred noisy sites, and western scrub jays, which avoided them altogetherPiñon pine seeds that are eaten by mice don't survive the passage through the animal's gut, Francis explained, so the boost in mouse populations near noisy sites could be bad news for pine seedlings in those areas.

In contrast, a single western scrub jay may take hundreds to thousands of seeds, only to hide them in the soil to eat later in the year. The seeds they fail to relocate will eventually germinate, so the preference of western scrub jays for quiet areas means that piñon pines in those areas are likely to benefit.

In keeping with their seed results, the researchers counted the number of piñon pine seedlings and found that they were four times as abundant in quiet sites compared with noisy ones.

It may take decades for a piñon pine to grow from a seedling into a full-grown tree, Francis said. This means the consequences of noise may last longer than we thought. "Fewer seedlings in noisy areas might eventually mean fewer mature trees, but because piñon pines are so slow-growing the shift could have gone undetected for years, he explained.

"Fewer piñon pine trees would mean less critical habitat for the hundreds of species that depend on them for survival," he added.

More information: Francis, C., N. Kleist, et al. (2012). " Noise pollution alters ecological services: enhanced pollination and disrupted seed dispersal." Proceedings of the Royal Society

NEW SCIENCE -Western Fire and Restoration

' Some false assumptions about the historical range of pinon trees is creating poor restoration practices

Grill Like 5- Star with Pinon Seasonings buy 1 get 1 Free

As spring came very early on our farm, we got out the hibachi and smoked some pork loin last week with pinon shells. The meat was outstanding and we wanted to share our tips for this unique natural flavoring to your grilling toolbox. To add extra pinon smoke to your grilling start by placing your pinon shells in water. The shells should be saturated with water but not dripping wet when you add it to the fire so once you remove it from the water, let it drain until it stops dripping. If you are using a charcoal grill you can add the pinon shells directly to the coals once the fire has died down. Always add smoking shells when you are ready to cook. There's no point making smoke for the sake of smoke.

If you are adding smoking shells to a gas grill then you need to arrange to keep the shells isolated from the fire. You don't want the shells to burn too fast and you don't want the ash to collect in your gas grill. There are several devices on the market for holding smoking wood chips in your gas grill; the most common is a cast iron box that fits under the cooking grate and above the burners. However the easiest and cheapest unit is a sheet of foil. Take your soaked nuts and place in on a piece of foil, fold to enclose it and then punch a couple holes through the foil to let the smoke through. This method works great and all you have to do is throw out the foil packet once it's cooled down.

The great thing about cooking with smoke is all the experimentation it allows you to do. There all kinds of different woods you can use in different combinations.

We have a fun hidden coupon code in our Pine Nut Vodka Drinking, Flying, Screaming, Luv Monkey Guest post on You Tube - two for price of one. Enjoy out naughty little monkey and get the two for one pine nut shell seasonings and our fun little monkey's take on pine nut vodka - use one for barbeque and the other to make some pinon flavored vodka.

Pinyon Pine Nut Trivia

It takes about 157143 pine cones to make one ton of pine nut kernels.

It takes about 4,400 pinon pine nuts (hard shell) to make 1 pound of pine nuts

It takes about 2,143 pinyon pine nuts (soft shell) to make 1 pound of pine nuts

THE IS GOLD IN THEM THERE HILLS - Americans Discover Pine Nuts From Neveada (Ely Times)

Ely Nevada - Are they ready to embrace pine nuts?

Pine nuts hold big potential for White Pine By Lukas Eggen, Ely Times Staff WriterThe Ely Times

White Pine County has made a name for itself through its mining industry. Penny Frazier believes there's potential for the area to make another name for itself. As one of the world's leading pine nut producers.

Frazier is the founder of PineNut.com, a company that harvests and imports pine nuts from the southwest. Frazier, who was a litigation paralegal prior to founding her company, had a different calling that drew her to her new business. Read the rest of the story:

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World Suzy Chaffee of the Native Voices Foundation, which prepares world-hunger recommendations for the upcoming UN "Rio+20" summit on sustainable development and Interview with Dr. Leo Sharashkin:

We can further curb hunger by taking full advantage of wild-growing
foods that Native Americans have thrived on. The U.S. have already lost
MILLIONS of acres of pine-nut producing pinyon pine forests in Nevada
and throughout the Great Basin - and many more are scheduled to be
logged out for bio-fuel or other uses - unless the people speak up! One
acre of mature pinyon forest can produce up to 300 lbs of pine nuts per
year (with retail value of over $3500!), one of the healthiest and
spiritually uplifting foods on the planet. So, America is destroying a
resource that provides many thousand tons of food without requiring any
effort other than harvesting.

Dr. Sharashkin will also be appearing at the Smallwood Conference in Flagstaff Arizona presenting information about the pinyon forest's value for pine nuts and important addition tool for landowners and managers.

Events and Apperances

Goods From The Woods - Dr. Sharashkin Presents @ Smallwood Conference

May 1 - 3, 2012 Flagstaff

The conference will be held at the Little America Hotel in Flagstaff, Arizona, USA on May 1-3, 2012 will give you the skills and information you need to adapt to changes and be successful in our current dynamic economy and industry. By focusing on our forest resources as well as the forest products industry, we will begin to understand key interactions and how to build a true forest restoration for a new economy. By attending SmallWood 2012 you will engage with an international slate of speakers, including researchers, material and equipment suppliers, manufacturers, and end-users providers

We would like to thank the conference organizers for enthusiastically embracing our work with Special Forest Products!

Wild Harvests from the Ozarks

Early Harvests - Wild Plum Flower Waters and Witch Hazel

We have begun our harvests and distillation early this year . As a result the witch hazel hydrosol is some the best we have ever produced. The young leaves and twigs are rich in phyto-chemicals . In the coming months we hope to have very exciting news about new partnerships with academia in the realm of certified organic wild crops. Taking our work from the forest to the mainstream in forestry and agriculture has been a long time goals. This year it appears we have major movement forward.

Bugged by the chiggers and itchy creatures?

As a person who spends a good deal of time outside becoming a part of the food chain for blood seeking insects, I have come to cherish yarrow hydrosol. Nothing seems to take back my skin from the blood thirsty critters like a spray of yarrow hydrosol. Buy one, get one free - no coupon needed (2 oz only)

Walnuts - Making it Fun and Easy
We've continued to expand our wild nuts offerings by bringing you the amazing wild Black Walnuts and a unique Professional Nut Cracker that makes cracking any nut a breeze, so you can enjoy the freshest kernels ever. Please do check out these new additions - for limited time only, we offer them with huge discounts, with no coupon needed:
http://www.pinenut.com/pine-nuts-sale/buy-pinon-pinenuts-shell.shtml#walnuts

SWEET ENDINGS -

Pine Nut Ice Cream with hot fudge pinon sauce

One of my favorite wild food advocates, Hank Shaw, food writer and hunter gather:

From the Blog Hunter, Gather, Cook,

PINE NUT ICE CREAM -

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes

• 1 cup shelled, skinned pine nuts
• 2 cups whole milk
• 2 cups heavy cream
• 3/4 cup honey
• 1/2 vanilla bean, scraped
• A pinch of salt
• 4-5 egg yolks

1. Toast the pine nuts in a dry pan on medium-high heat until they begin to brown. Keep an TO READ THE REST

HOT FUDGE PINON SAUCE

MAKES 32 2-tbsp.) servings

1 1/2 cups shelled pinon nuts

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa

1/4 tsp. salt

1 1/4 cups heavy cream

1 cup light corn syrup

1 tbsp. distilled white vinegar

1/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips

2 oz. unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped

1/4 cup butter

1 tbsp. vanilla extract

Pulse nuts in a food processor until coarsely ground (the texture of couscous).

. Sift sugar, cocoa, and salt into a medium saucepan. Add 3/4 cup warm water and stir to combine. Bring mixture to a simmer over medium heat, stirring until smooth.

Add cream, corn syrup, vinegar, and chocolate chips. Raise heat to medium-high and boil mixture for 8 to 10 minutes, swirling occasionally, until slightly reduced (mixture will be thin and sticky); remove from heat. Stir in unsweetened chocolate, butter, vanilla, and pine nuts. Serve warm.