The pinion is extracted from umbrella pine, also called stone pine. Spain is the world's largest producer of pine nuts. Turkey and China are also the main producers. Russia is the largest producer of Pinus sibirica nuts in the world, followed by Mongolia, which produces more than 10,000 tons of nuts grown in forests per year.
Most of the crop is exported to China. Afghanistan is an important source of pine nuts, behind China and Korea. Four other species, the Siberian pine (Pinus sibirica), the Siberian dwarf pine (Pinus pumila), the Chinese white pine (Pinus armandii) and the gum bark pine (Pinus bungeana), are also used to a lesser extent. Another option for harvesting is to wait until the cone opens in the tree (as will naturally occur) and harvest the cone from the pine nut pine, followed by the extraction process mentioned above.
This is due to the higher temperatures at elevations lower than 1800 m (6,000 ft) during spring, which dry out the moisture and moisture content (especially the layers of snow) that provide the tree during spring and summer, and cause few nutrients for pineapple maturity. Although they are nuts in the culinary sense, in the botanical sense pine nuts are seeds; being a gymnosperm, they lack carpel (fruit) on the outside. Torta della nonna (literally grandmother's cake) is a generic name for Italian dish that in most families indicates an old family recipe for any type of cake, but it is often used to make a cake or a cake filled with pastry cream, covered with pine nuts and, optionally, sprinkled with icing sugar. American pine cone production is most commonly found at an altitude of between 1,800 and 2,600 m (6,000 and 8,500 ft), and ideally at 2,100 m (7,000 ft).
The Nevada pine nut, or Great Basin, has a sweet fruity flavor and is touted for its large size, sweet flavor, and ease of peeling. The other eight species of pine nuts are used to a small extent, as are the gray pine (Pinus sabineana), the Coulter pine (Pinus coulteri), the Torrey pine (Pinus torreyana), the sugar pine (Pinus lambertiana) and the Parry pine nut (Pinus quadrifolia). Pine nuts, everyone's favorite nuts and which they hardly ever buy because they're too expensive, grow naturally in the pine and juniper forests of the southwestern United States. With cheaper labor and fewer environmental restrictions in China (some simply cut entire branches instead of picking pineapples, which is extremely bad for the tree), Chinese pine nuts have been able to take control over the past decade.
Some raw pine nuts can cause flavor alterations, which can last from a few days to a few weeks after consumption. I just saw this: I started doing research after paying a premium for Chinese pine nuts recently (I've been told it has to do with trade wars). Pine nut collectors report that unpredictable weather has made the already difficult task of harvesting pine nuts considerably more difficult and, potentially, not even profitable. In Catalonia, a sweet treat is made with small marzipan balls covered with pine nuts, painted with eggs and lightly cooked, and those are called Panellets.
