pine nuts!!

[Nolena]

Nah. Those were from the store.
We're going collecting at 1:00 tomorrow. Meet at helicopter hill about 1:10.

Grazing is us.

[Nolena]

O. K. Those puppies are everywhere.
The reddish ones seem to be the freshest.
I've had luck shelling them with a garlic press, a couple at a time.
Gotta go pick up some more!

[ForestGal]

The garlic press is a good idea - I didn't think of that.
I tried the nutcracker first, and the nuts are too small to use that.  Next I got a pair of pliers - that works, but it's hard not to crush the nut in the process.

[Nolena]

O. K. Here's a nice little site I found.

http://www.pinenut.com/trixie.htm

Shelling Your Nuts
Needed:  Two terry cloth towels and a rolling pin
1. Lay the soft-shelled pine nuts between the towels and roll firmly.
2. I have read, but not perfected the method of rolling with such persuasion that the shells stick to the terry cloth and pull away with the towel. Anyone with this degree of successes has perfected this method commonly used by Farming wives in the Southwest.

[storm]

yes, you do have to remove the thin shell.  i use my teeth--like shelling sunflower seeds--as i eat them. 

one of the first things i did upon coming to wrightwood is collect about a gallon of them.

[RNgiveTLC]

Ok so I am a Tad dumb about this. Where exactly is a pine nut in a pine cone?

TY Donna

[ezzpete]

inside all the little openings.

[WWMtnGal]

Ok so I am a Tad dumb about this. Where exactly is a pine nut in a pine cone?

TY Donna

Don't feel bad and no you are not dumb!  I have found that the pine nut from the Pinon Pine tree has really great pine nuts (they are bigger than the ones in my yard).  They are located in the openings of the pine cone.  You might be seeing them in your yard right now and not know what they are, but they are great roasted and thrown in salads, pesto etc.

Try them, you will like them!

[Stitches]

I had no idea either until we moved up here.    The first fall I was here I was outside picking up pinecones after a windy day.   I picked up a fresh fallen one and accidentally dropped it and about 50 pine nuts fell of out of it.   I looked at it closer and saw where there were openings between the pinecone "leaves", I could still see some of the pine nuts with their leaflike attachments.   

Now I'll go out there after a windy day and pick up pinecones and sit outside and tap them onto a clean table cloth and gather my nuts that way.   I'll also pick them up off the ground.

[ForestGal]

The pinon pine nuts that ezzpete was referring to when he started this topic, don't have the little"wings" on them.  They are the largest nuts of all the pines, I think,  and therefore the easiest to gather, if you are in the right place.  The cones from those trees are small and extremely sappy, but the nuts fall all over the ground and are easy to pick up.  Yummy!!!

[2CatMama]

[Bud]

That's the funny thing about humans. We may take away their pine nuts but give them back peanuts.

[Hillbillies]

[2CatMama]

I'm thinking back a couple of winters now to when my sister & bro-in-law still had their cabin.  We were up in November and commenting on how it was going to be a cold, tough winter.  All the pine cones we found had been stripped down to the stemmy part, and I thought that meant the animals and birds knew a tough winter was coming.  Now I just think my sister's neighbors up on Eagle were pesto lovers.

[Adrienne]

Now I understand why my dog goes "nuts" tearing pine cones apart.
Not only is there a treat in them, but an aphrodisiac treat!

[Nolena]

[Nick]

[ezzpete]

For those of you still collecting pine nuts there is a plethora of pine nuts on the Country Club's  (country club ??..How about The Twin Lakes Club) tennis courts. They are all over and easy for the pickin.

you could use a broom to collet them.

[Hillbillies]

I am finding that a lot of the pine nuts on the ground are already rotten.

[Nolena]

Yeah, they certainly taste that way. After about the 50th one I ate, I wasn't feeling so good.