Outdoors with Don Q: Nuts on the pine

CARSON CITY, Nev. — This is an annual, late fall article on how to enjoy those tiny, irresistible, tasty gourmet treats known as pine nuts.
For those unfamiliar with them, they are the seeds of the Pinon Pine Tree, which is the official tree of the State of Nevada. The Pinon is a fairly short, bushy looking, rather unattractive, full-of-pitch tree and it is one of the main physical features of our Great Basin area.
Surprisingly, that tree also produces one of Mother Nature's tastiest gourmet treats. And, most interesting, the seed crop of the Pinon tree is completely unpredictable and unreliable. The nuts usually occur about once every 2-3 years per tree, with the density of the nut-laden trees varying dramatically from one area to another, even in the same general location. So, with that as a brief background, here is some basic information:

There are two ways to obtain pine nuts:
— Go into the hills and gather them yourself: Have a four-wheel drive vehicle to save wear and tear on your family car, and to help get out of places where that car could quickly get stuck.
Wait until there has been a hard frost, followed by a high wind, and then wander around in the backcountry, looking for trees loaded with new cones.
When you find some likely candidates, park your vehicle, put on some latex gloves (the gloves are to keep the sticky tree pitch off your hands while picking nuts off the ground), take an empty, two-pound, metal coffee can and begin to look for pine nuts on the ground, under the trees.
If you’re in the right area, the nuts will be scattered all over, under the trees, and then all you have to do is just pick up darker colored ones (the lighter-colored ones are usually hollow).
This is a very simple but effective collection process compared to trying to get the nuts out of the pitch-covered cones that remain on the trees.
If by chance you do get pitch on your arms or hands, the best way to remove it is to use Mayonnaise. It’s true, Mayonnaise works much better than petroleum products and best of all, it doesn’t smell strong like petroleum.
Gather the nuts until you have filled your coffee can and then return home.

Secondly, if you don’t mind the cost, wander into your favorite super market and buy a pound (or two) of their raw pine nuts. That sure beats lots of work in the backcountry. However be advised that the store-bought pine nuts will be super expensive, because they are very labor-intensive, but if you buy them, you will save lots of wear and tear on your vehicle, clothing and hands. Whichever way you obtain them, just follow these easy instructions:

Selecting the good ones and getting rid of bad ones:
At home, empty the nuts onto a sheet of newspaper laid out on your kitchen table (the newspaper is to protect your table-top from pitch). Fill the metal coffee can about half-full with cold water. Then, pour in a quantity of nuts to determine if any of them float. Any that float are hollow or have begun to get hard. Throw them away.
The good ones sink to the bottom of the water. Those are the ones you want. Repeat this process until you have floated all of the nuts. As a general rule of the thumb, about 25 percent of the pine nuts you gathered up off the ground will be bad. But the ones that remain will be well worth all of the effort.

Boiling the pine nuts:
Replace the water in the metal coffee can with clean, cold water.
Place pine nuts in the can until the water level is 3-4 inches from the top.
Season the water with lots of table salt. If in doubt, use more, much more!
You are now ready to cook the pine nuts on your stove.
Bring the water to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium high and boil the nuts for roughly 15-20 minutes.
Special Note: Do not use any of your regular cooking pots or you will be sorry. The nuts produce pitch while cooking and that pitch is almost impossible to remove from your pots. That's why you use the metal coffee can. Once you are totally done cooking the pine nuts, throw the can away.

Drying the pine nuts:
Cover a large cookie sheet with aluminum foil (to protect the cookie sheet from any remaining pitch).
Remove the piping-hot pine nuts from the water in the coffee can.
Spread them in a single layer on the aluminum foil.
Season with lots of salt, and if in doubt, use even more salt.
Note: At this point, the temptation is too great for me, and I always eat some (many more than just one) of those great tasting treats.
Place the cookie sheet in a pre-heated oven.
Dry the nuts at 250 degrees for about 10-20 minutes.
Remove from the oven, spread out on paper towels, pat dry with other paper towels, sprinkle with more salt, and then I dare you to try to eat one and only one of those gourmet delights.
Be advised that you can not eat just one, freshly-cooked pine nut and then stop. It's impossible. Eating them is comparable to eating potato chips, jelly beans, cashews, honey roasted peanuts, etc. You will feel compelled to keep eating more and more, until they're all gone.
Just keep cracking the nuts and eating the tasty morsels that they contain, until you are stuffed. Don't say that you weren't warned.

Future Enjoyment
If you have collected way more than you can enjoy at one sitting, once they have been floated, place the surplus, raw pine nuts in plastic bags and store in your freezer for future enjoyment.
When ready to eat, take a bag out of the freezer and follow the above instructions for boiling and drying the nuts.

Finally:
Sharing freshly-cooked pine nuts with that special person in front of a cozy, crackling fireplace is a great combination on a cold, wintry night.
Try it, you won’t go wrong! I guarantee it.

Special Note:
Last Friday, we went looking for pine nuts in the area between Woodfords and Markleeville, along California S.R. 89 between Markleeville and Topaz Lake and between Topaz Lake and Gardnerville. There were very few nuts at those locations. Try somewhere else.

Bet Your Favorite Pigeon
Bet your favorite pigeon that he can’t tell you two other areas to gather pine nuts in our part of Western Nevada.
If he grins and says, “Heck, that’s easy. Those two areas are in the backcountry, east of Johnson Lane in Douglas County, and along the Desert Creek Road also in Douglas County,” he might have been on one of my many pine nut gathering trips in those areas. My favorite gathering area is along the Desert Creek Road, and we’ll be going there right after the next big wind storm in this area.

— Don Quilici is the outdoors editor for Carson Now. He can be reached at donquilici@hotmail.com