Nut pines for pine nuts
I've always been curious
about pine nuts, but never took the time to research them
properly. Stone Pine (Pinus
pinea)
is the European response to producing pine nuts, but is really only
good to zone 7. Instead, Jacke suggested Korean nut pine (Pinus
koraiensis) for
our region since it is tolerant of cold weather and makes high quality
nuts.
Planting a nut pine is
an experiment with a capital E. The trees
are huge, so we'll be cutting a gap in the pine forest on the south end
of our garden to plant them in rather than using up precious garden
space. Some folks say Korean nut pines bear in 3 to 8
years. Others warn you that you'll need to wait 40 years.
Hmmm.... 
The seedlings are
pricey, so I decided to try my hand at germinating
seeds bought on ebay. (Don't try to just plant the pine nuts
you'd buy in the grocery store --- without their protective shell,
these rot in the ground.) Stay tuned for updates on this
experiment...over the next 40 years.
| This post is part of our Splurging on Perennials lunchtime series.
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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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