Inspirational Pine Nut Madness !!!

Well what do you know about the often used but never really the star of the show the trusty and most flavoursome Pine Nut??

Join with us to blow our minds as we venture into the mystical world of the most deliciously bold flavoured, intriguing nut which comes from the most obvious of places.

Once you read this it will all click as to where the pine nut hides out until it hits your pesto as its true they actually come from the trusty pine cone we all collect in autumn!!!

It often takes a pine tree up to two/three years to actually form the cone, they bud in Spring and lay dormant through winter and then regrow and reach maturity the following year when they can be harvested.

The cheeky nuts are crazy hard to extract -They are dried in a burlap bag for 20 days, the cones are then smashed by hand to extract the nut.

The nuts have a deep red thin shell and are delicately peeled to produce the pine nut colour we all know – No wonder they cost so much!!!

Pine Nut Mouth is a very real, this is an allergic reaction to pine nuts which make you feel like you have stuffed your mouth with iron filings (ouch)

European nuts are long and slender whereas Asian varieties are short and stubby - both taste exactly the same.

Legend says Roman soldiers ate Pine nuts on our lands as a battle food over 2000 years ago and this helped spread the eruption of pine trees into our soil – "Let Them Grow" they chanted as they invaded our shores