FALL FORGEABLES: Pinon Nuts

first learned of pinon nuts by drinking pinon coffee from New Mexico.

- JUSTIN TOWNSEND

The coffee combines roasted pinon nuts with roasted coffee beans to create a unique and delicious tasting coffee. When I moved to Colorado years later, I set out on a mission to harvest pinon nuts in the wild for my own consumption. On episode 421 of the Wild Fish and Game Podcast, I chatted with Erica Davis, The Wild Food Girl, in more detail about pinon nuts and making pinon nut milk. Unfortunately, this conversation was too late in the season, and I missed the annual harvest on the nuts which normally occurs in late summer or early fall.

The pinon nut is one of 29 species of consumable pine nuts found around the world. In the stores, you will commonly find pine nuts from Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, but rarely will you find a pine nut from New Mexico, Colorado, or other Southwestern states. When you do find them, they are a treat with a mild nutty flavor in contrast to a bitter and buttery flavor of most other pine nuts.