Piñon Harvesting

Last week my neighbor friend Val and one of my twin sons went hiking in the Sandia Mountains. We were on a mission to look for piñon nuts for harvesting.

In the high desert region of the Southwestern United States, between 5,500 and 7,000feet, resides one of New Mexico's most precious assets, Pinus edulis, the New Mexico Pinon Tree. The Pinon Tree is New Mexico's State Tree and is often called the "Manna" of the desert. The Pinon nut, has sustained life for humans and animals alike for centuries. The Pinon tree clings to the rim of the canyons, taking root in the solid rock and endures the ravages of nature.

This is a photo I took from our hiking trails. The mountains you see are the backside (or eastside) of the Sandia Mountains.
And here you can see the Westside view of the Sandia Mountains with photos taken 2 years ago from our backyard in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, before we moved to the mountains.

Taking nearly 200 years to produce a 1-foot diameter trunk. An old piñon may be more than 500 years old, and may live as long as 1,000 years.
If the winter-spring is wet, the piñon will produce a good crop of piñons the following year between September and October, an event that happens about every 6 years. Piñons reproduce by seed only, and it takes about 25 years for a tree to begin producing seedcones. A photo looking down one of the trails we hiked.

Piñon nuts are gathered by hand, from wild trees. The harvest is labor intensive, requiring pulling off the cones with a pole or gloves, or picking individual fallen seeds off the ground. The meat of the seed is protected by a heavy shell which must be removed.
I enjoy eating them raw, but roasting brings out the buttery rich flavor even more.
After roasting, the toasted buttery creamy flavor is addictive. Euell Gibbons author of "Handbook of Edible Wild Plants" described Piñon nuts "The most palatable of all the wild foods."
Here you can see Val and Jem harvesting (and eating) pinon nuts from the ground.

The nuts can be prepared and eaten in many different ways – raw, roasted, boiled, mashed, as a soup or ground into a paste like peanut butter. There are many unique and delicous recipes to try using pinon nuts. And here in New Mexico, you can find wonderful products to buy using pinons, too. (they also do mail order. hint-hint)
One of my favorite products using pinon nuts is Pinon Coffee. Yummy!

And here's Val filling up her bag full of delicious pinons.

And there is just something truly New Mexican about the spicy scent of pinon wood smoke from cozy fires on a cold winter night. A cup of Pinon Coffee and a plate full of sweet, delicate-tasting New Mexico Biscochitos is as authentic a New Mexico experience as you can imagine.

“Nobody who has sat before a roaring, pitch-boiling, bubbling, scented fire of piñon can think of it as a mere consumption of wood. It is the spirited release of centuries of brilliant sunlight absorbed under a cloudless Southwestern sky, the sudden and instant flow of energy patiently accumulated." from Pinon.com

And here is my recent Pinon Harvest. Which tasty recipes do you think I should make?