Cashews are problematic for reasons other than flavor. But you’re right; there’s a market for almost anything, especially if a health benefit can be hyped. I still haven’t found anyone online who cites flavor as a reason to eat them, though.
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Looks like some fairly large males around Seattle according to Trees of Seattle, I’d guess the best strategy to find good seeds would be to look for smaller female trees in the vicinity of the male trees listed here, and at least the one in Calvary Cemetery has a mate nearby:
He notes that it’s “tedious to husk but worth the effort” so maybe they can be tasty when roasted the “right” way? Definitely something I’ll try out this fall if I can get my hands on a couple seeded cones.
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A few points:
When ripe the female cones break apart so you will be looking at the ground for harvest.
The seeds are not hard high protein & fat nuts, but rather slightly soft starchy nuts more like chestnuts.
I’ve only eaten a couple due to limited opportunity, but the flavor is mild and pleasant. In my opinion that is ideal for starchy foods.
They can be eaten raw as well as cooked, but they were introduced to the world of ornamental gardeners after an early European visitor to South America was served them raw at a meal and he pocketed them to plant later back in Europe.
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In my opinion the only reason these haven’t been grown on a commercial scale in the US is the long wait time between planting and harvest. They were a staple food where native and abundant.
I think they would be ideal for silvopasture with the planting site used for grazing livestock to provide income to farmers while waiting for monkey nut production to begin. They do not need caging to be protected from livestock browsing.
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Pine nuts come from stone pines and pinyon pines…among others.
Pine seed
is the correct
designation, but I doubt the
ones from the store germinate much.
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Pines are in a different genus (Pinus). Araucaria would not be considered pine nuts. In addition to genetics, the seeds also differ from pine seeds considerably in both size and flavor. A name for the edible Araucaria seeds is “Ngüilliu”.
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I first heard of these several years ago, reading stories by Davis Grubb—most of them set in the region around Moundsville, West Virgina. In several of his works—including his best-known novel, Night of the Hunter (1953)—Grubb mentions a “puzzle tree.” Now, I had no idea what he meant----and, after an Internet search, the only actual puzzle tree I could find was a monkey puzzle tree, so I assumed that’s what he was talking about. Is it possible that Grubb could’ve known of a monkey puzzle tree growing in West Virginia—perhaps in a riverine microclimate on the Ohio? Or is “puzzle tree” here a regional term for another type of tree altogether?
Anyhow, if I thought there was a chance I could successfully grow A. araucana, I’d definitely give it a go. The Experimental Farm Network was selling seed of them this winter—and I nearly went for it, but finally figured I’d likely end up wasting time, money and energy in my climate.
Anyone having faith in the climate change theories certainly should think about monkey puzzle in zone 6.
I have deodar cedars in Laurel and Madison counties in Kentucky. Minus 19 nearly killed them in '14/15 but they survived…many leyland cypress did not.
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What variety are the pine nuts sold in the stores?
According to Wikipedia it’s a couple dozen species of true pines:
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, only 29 species provide edible nuts, while 20 are traded locally or internationally owing to their seed size being large enough to be worth harvesting; in other pines, the seeds are also edible, but are too small to be of notable value as a human food.
If the label reads “product of the USA” then its pinyon pine seeds.
I planted a few pine nut trees back around 2015 and 2016. The Siberian one is now about 7 feet tall, the other dwarf Korean ones are about 3’. There is another patch of about six or seven small trees, Koreans and dwarf Koreans, in an unused area, but I had a bad encounter with poison ivy while planting them , so they are fending for themselves! Actually, I’m not that fond of pine nuts, but like to try various crops to have a little variety. They also require very little care, though I suspect harvest might be putzy, not that I have to worry about harvest any time soon.
I have korean pines and they are 12 or 13 years old. They have a few cones each year now, with a few more each year. They are down slope of the septic field, so that probably helps. I’m on the north shore of PEI, Canada. We are 2/3 of the way up the north side of a large river valley, so get a month extra time frost free than the valley floor.
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There are a couple types of mangrove referred to as puzzle nut, but I doubt they are growing wild in WV.
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We have one on my block about 15ft tall, survived -26C a couple winters ago, some freeze damage every year so I’d say we’re right at its limit
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One of the large, mature specimens in my neighborhood was killed last summer during our record heat wave (108°F or thereabouts), so that’s another consideration for people hoping to grow them in areas with the potential for summer heat. It had also been dry leading up to that, and I’m not sure whether the owners watered it, but it was soon after the heat wave that it turned brown, so that was the proximate cause at least.
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