Pistachios are a nutritious Staple that is easy to grow and store.
Pistachios are a great tree to grow if you live in a warmer climate. Trees will start producing after six or seven years and tend to alternate between heavy and light years as far as harvest production. In most areas the nuts will start to be ready for harvesting around early to mid October.
To test for readiness you will need to visually and physically do some investigating. The outer layer will start showing some redness and if you pull a few, a quick peel will reveal if they are splitting open yet. When there seems to be a good amount that are ready you can either hand harvest them by lightly pulling them, the ones that are ready will be easier to separate from the stems. Another method that works well is laying a large tarp or sheet underneath the tree and alternate shaking the branches that are hanging over it vigorously to get the nuts to fall off.
Preparation of harvested nuts
Once you have the nuts off of the tree you need to remove all the leaves/branches and any nuts that are dry or look dark as this could be a sign of mold. once you have them sorted you need to peel off the outer layer. This process can be done by squeezing the outer layer by hand one at a time. If there are a large amount I have found that getting a piece of expanded metal and rubbing them along the surface in a back and forth motion can speed up this process greatly
Drying and seasoning for storage
Once you have the nuts separated you will want to rinse them to remove any loose remnants. Once clean, you will need to soak them in a salt brine solution for three to four hours. Personally I like to do all these steps the same day to limit the chance that any mold will grow in my shells. Once the pistachios have finished soaking in the solution you will want to pour them into some type of strainer and let the drain for fifteen minutes or so.
At this point there are a few options depending on how you want to flavor them. If you prefer no seasoning at all you can simply place on a baking tray in your oven and toast at 200 degrees F. for about 4 hours. If you want to season, you will want to remove after about an hour, let cool and then either toss in a large bowl with salt and or pepper after lightly misting them with a clean water sprayer to help the seasoning stick. Return the seasoned pistachios for the remaining three hours to finish cooking.
There are countless ideas for season them apart from salt or pepper. I like using hot sauce and lime, Italian seasonings or even dill seasoning blends. The important part here is to make sure they are fully drying out before storing. If they aren’t drying as much as you want, simply adjust the cooking times or pop them back into oven for another hour.
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