Pine Nuts Grow on Pine Trees: Marketing Months, Common Varieties and How to Eat Them Explained

Pine nuts, also known as pine seeds, fruit pine nuts and sea pine nuts, are the seeds of plants in the pine family such as the Korean pine, and are one of the common nuts. So do you know where they grow? Which month are they on the market? How are they eaten? What varieties are there? It is understood that in autumn, the harvest time is generally from mid-September to mid-October, which is also the time they are freshly on the market, but nowadays they can basically be bought at any time. Moreover, pine nuts are high in calories and are very suitable for consumption in winter.

Where do pine nuts grow?

1. The pine nuts we usually eat are spread by small animals such as squirrels. Common pines of this kind include the Korean pine, Masson's pine and Armand's pine, which can produce large pine nuts over 1 cm long. These pine nuts are rich in oil and are a precious fat supply for squirrels and birds preparing for winter. The small animals take the pine nuts away and bury them shallowly in various places, noting the locations so they can dig them out to eat in winter. But whether squirrels or various birds, their memory is ultimately limited, and they inevitably forget many treasure spots. When spring arrives, these forgotten pine nuts are soaked by spring rain and then take root and sprout, beginning their own lives far from the mother tree. There are also people who love eating pine nuts, and all the pine nuts seen on the market are contributed by this type of pine (especially the Korean pine).

2. Another major category of pines adopts a completely different strategy. Their pine nuts are tiny, less than half a cm long. Although they are not the first choice on the menu of animals, these seeds are light in texture and come with a thin wing. As long as the weather is clear, the ripe pine cones become dry, the scales open, and the winged seeds slip out from between the scales. With a gust of clear wind, the pine nut paratroopers scatter everywhere and begin a new journey. Pines of this kind, including the Chinese pine, lacebark pine and Mongolian Scots pine, are all commonly used tree species in urban greening.

What varieties of pine nuts are there?

At present, domestic pine nuts are mainly divided into two kinds, Northeast pine nuts, Brazilian pine nuts and sinking pine nuts. Although they are all pine nuts, there are essential differences in nutritional value and shape.

1. Brazilian pine nuts

Brazilian pine nut kernels have very high nutritional and medicinal value, and they include a variety of nutrients essential to the human body.

2. Northeast pine nuts

Northeast pine nuts are also called Northeast Korean pine nuts. Korean pine nuts are the seeds of the Korean pine, a plant in the pine family, also known as sea pine nuts.

3. Sinking pine nuts, sea pine nuts

Five leaves form one cluster, and seeds form inside the cone, with three ridges and one pointed end. Stored for a long time, they produce oil, and the flesh is very fragrant and delicious. Pine nuts from the Central Plains can only be used as medicine and cannot be eaten as food. But sea pine nuts produced in Jilin and Yunnan can be eaten.

How are pine nuts eaten?

1. Minced chicken with pine nuts

We prepare some chicken breast, pine nuts, and some auxiliary materials, egg white, sesame oil, pepper, salt, ginger wine juice and so on.

We need to first mince the chicken breast, preferably into a paste, then add the prepared marinade and marinate for about twenty minutes, and set aside. We fry the pine nuts in oil, and when they are fried golden brown, take them out and drain the oil.

Then we add oil again, and after the oil is about sixty percent hot, add the marinated chicken breast, then stir-fry it, and when the chicken breast changes color, take it out and drain the oil.

After that, put the pine nuts at the bottom of the plate and place the chicken on top

2. Pine nut yellow dried cake

We need wet glutinous rice flour, wet japonica rice flour, sweet-scented osmanthus sugar, caramel color, soft white sugar and pine nuts.

First we need to mix the dough for making the sponge cake flour, stirring together the soft white sugar, wet rice flour and caramel color, and adding an appropriate amount of water. After that, we shape it. We use some cake material and mix in some pine nuts, then make it into a filling, then use some cake flour as the base and top, and then form it.

After shaping, it can be steamed. We need to steam it for about thirty minutes first, then cover the pot with the lid until steamed through, after which we can take it out of the steamer, and then cut it into pieces.

3. Pine nut fish pieces

Prepare fish, eggs and cornstarch, as well as garlic, pine nuts and mixed vegetable kernels. And some marinade.

When making it, we need to first clean the fish, then cut it into somewhat thick pieces, then add the marinade and marinate for about twenty minutes, and set aside. The pine nuts need to be toasted until fragrant.

Put oil in the pot, and after the oil is half hot, add the fish coated with egg liquid and cornstarch, and fry until golden brown.

Then leave a little oil in the pot, add the garlic and mixed vegetables, then thicken with starch, then pour it over our fish, and then sprinkle on the pine nuts.

4. If they are open, just pry them open with your hands and eat the kernel inside; if they are not fully open, bite them open with your teeth and eat the kernel inside.