"pistachio" news and stories

Ever wonder where all of our nuts come from, especially considering that they are easily found in just about every market you could wander into?

• Cashews are grown throughout the tropics, but most come from are India and East Africa. They are never sold in the shell because there is an extremely caustic oil between the inner and outer layers which must be burned off before they can be sold.
• Almonds originated in the Mediterranean, but California now produces 80% of the world's supply.
• Macadamia nuts are native to Australia and were brought to Hawaii about 100 years ago. Commercial production began around 1920 and most of the world's macadamias are now grown on Hawaii.
• Walnuts are the third most popular nut in the US and California produces 2/3 of the world's crop.
• Pecans are native to the Mississippi valley and are the only nut native to the US. Georgia is the largest producer of pecans.
• Hazelnuts, also known as filbert, are primarily grown in Turkey, where 75% of the world's supply comes from. Almost all the US grown hazelnuts are from Oregon's Willamette valley
• Pistachio production is the largest in Iran, which accounts for about 40% of the international crop. The US is the second largest producer, with almost 30% of the crop, 98% of which is grown in California.
• Peanuts are not really nuts, but are legumes and members of the pea family (only included here as they most often grouped with nuts). China is the largest producer, with almost 40% of the world crop. India has almost 25%and the U.S., the third largest producing country, has only 6%. Roughly 2/3 of the global peanut crops are processed into peanut oil.
• Brazil nuts are resistant to cultivation and are still primarily harvested from the wild in South America.

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A few weeks ago, we saw that Haagen-Dazs new flavor was to be Sticky Toffee Pudding, which bested the Toasted Coconut Sesame Brittle and Cannoli flavors. While the Toffee seemed to have its fans among our commenters, most people seemed to be pulling for the Coconut or Cannoli ice creams. Thanks to Jim Caccamo, an ice cream lover from Kansas City, you can try your hand at making cannoli ice cream at home. He has concocted a recipe that captures the flavor of the Italian treat as perfectly as possible, with a blend of ricotta, chocolate chips, pistachios and some candied fruit added to an egg-rich ice cream base.

If you don't have the equipment to make good ice cream at home, Jim has submitted the ice cream to a Ben & Jerry's recipe contest, so even though Haagen-Dazs missed their chance at the flavor, we could still see it on store shelves in the future.

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Whether you spell it baklava or baklawa, the layered dessert of sweetened layers of phyllo dough and nuts is nothing short of delicious. I've always been curious to know the the honey-laden treat's origins, especially since I've eaten it in Greek, Israeli and Turkish spots. But as with most delicacies, I'd rather celebrate it in all its diverse forms than stick to one type.

It seems that Turks and Cypriot Greeks take the pastry a tad more seriously, I read recently in Ya Libnan, a Lebanese newspaper. Turkish producers of the treat take issue with the Greeks' claim to have created it. There was even a protest in Istanbul earlier this week complete with banners reading, "Baklava is Turkish, we will not allow the Greek Cypriots to feed it to the world."

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