My parents divorced when we were young. My dad had us on Sundays. My dad was a very hyper-active type - action before planning. In this case he had been hearing from all his friends that they had been pinon picking so he figured this would make a good Sunday outing. What he hadn't figured out was the pinon picking season was over or more correctly that the harvest had been picked. We drove about 40 miles to the Pecos valley - yup - plenty of pinon trees - we all got out and headed to the trees. Not a single pinon on the ground. Into the car and off to the next spot. Five different spots and five hours later - as it was beginning to get dark the 4 kids and one dad had maybe a tiny teacup of pinon. That was it. I swore I would never go pinon picking again. For Christmas every year after I had grown up and moved away, my dad sent me 5 lbs. of pinons. They were always the best Christmas present I got. My dad has been gone for a while, and sadly the droughts of the 21st century have laid havoc on the poor pinon tree. A tree that will grow, and bloom, and prosper in the most marginal of lands - not unlike the long time people of New Mexico - The Indians and the Spanish. and as we say it Peen-nyon.

You are so lucky. Your elders get so old! In my family they die of cancer. I am teaching myself traditional types of foods so I can trance them back to me as a child and feed me and my mother. Trying to stop cancer !!! Thanks.

Im Navajo and my family loves picking Pinons. Knees and legs are sore the next day. Its worth it.

Thank you for sharing an old tradition. May the People always stick to the old ways without them there is no foundation. Like dust in the wind. Preserving your Tribes legacy through these videos is a must. Thank your for sharing your family's traditions while preserving life & the next generation of Gatherers.

I miss home. I remember piñion picking with my grandparents. We would have soo much fun running around and finding good spots.

This is great. The pine nuts were all over the place in western Turkey where I grew up and I picked and cracked tons of it with a random rock and ate. We never roasted them. I loved the taste right out of the shell.

thank you Me being someone not of native descent i love that you are keeping your heritage alive, thank you.

My family is from Ohio, and I love these little nuts, they're so good, bless everyone who picks them

Thank you so much for this. I would love to see more videos on traditional picking, harvesting and cooking. Much love

Thank you for sharing. I am a native of the southwest, and I've heard of the affection for pinion pine nuts, but never had them. But now, I am awaiting my own trees I just bought from the net. I hope I can grow them big and strong!

Enjoyed the video. We would gather the pine cones before they opened and put them into burlap bags. When the cones dry out and open the pine nuts drop into the bottom of the bag which we would thrash with sticks to dislodge sticky nuts... the empty cones are removed and the pine nuts are all captured into the burlap bag. Our family could gather hundreds of pounds of pine nuts every day this way. Great family memories from central Nevada in the '70s

Thank you so much for this knowledge ! I was eating some piñon pine nuts today in southern Colorado and immediately was drawn to your video. I especially appreciated the point not to pick green cones to open later or shake the tree, obviously this is the most sustainable and respectful method. Many thanks. S. McGaw

I love this video too I am new Mexican we love our pinon too thank you

Love the native ways you shared, thank you.

thank you for sharing your heritage. totally awesome

Thank you so much for this wonderful video. What does roasting pinion smell like? I'd love to know!

Watching this video brought back alot of good memories from when I was very young. I remember my parents finding a spot to pick the pinons and my mom would cook out there and make coffee in our little coffee pot. Very special memories and I miss that part of the country. My family used to roast pinons in the oven of a wood/coal stove.

I love pinon! I grew up eating it. I like them with and without salt, hee hee! 😆💕

I love this! I only have half Navajo and the other is Apache and I live in Colorado.

Thank you for sharing this. I came across a video of Simone picking pinion nuts and I was so curious I found myself here. So beautiful.

I love this video. and I am from New Mexico. I will remember to clean with baking soda, from now on. Thank you, Shanna... wonderful name.. wow.. Blessings..

Thank you for teaching us.

Aww, traditional pinion picking 💕awesome, thanks

Thank you for your kindness in showing this. And thank you even more for sharing your beautiful family 🙏🏼

From New Zealand 🇳🇿🇳🇿🇳🇿 l love your way of life. Thank you so much for sharing your beautiful scenery & gathering food from the forest. Its true we can keave i. Harmony with nature🇳🇿🇳🇿🇳🇿🌲💯💯🎄😇🎉🎅Happy New year 2020.

Fantastic!! Thanks for sharing. Keep the culture Alive..!!!

I just watched a whole bunch of videos on picking pine nuts, and this one was by far the best and most interesting. Nice work!

Very healing and sustaining. Thank you for keeping precious tradition. Many blessings

Its a blessing to be surrounded by elders. Miss my grandparents and my parents. Thanks gave me an inner peace to watch your upload.

Thank you for sharing your culture! I really enjoyed learning about pine nuts... I love them but had no idea how they were harvested and used by Native Americans!

Thank you so much to sharing ❤️

I MISS MY AUNTIES AND GMA OUT IN SMITHLAKE . GOD BLESS NAVAJO TRADITIONAL TEACHINGS AND OUR YOUTH

Stone Pine nuts are $100/ kg in Portugal. They taste sooo much better than Chinese ones. Its really worthwhile for a family to gather the cones if they own a bit of land and its great to learn that in your tradition the raw pine nuts are good for joints. Thanks.

I'm appreciative of the pine picking💗😌

Great information. Thanks for sharing your knowledge and culture. I just recently became interested in how to pick pinyon pine nuts while out on my many hikes. Fun and tasty.

Love this video! This last fall was my first time gathering pinyons and I had hundreds of Dnai mothers to help this pale face out. The first things you said on the vid is what my first advised, pick from the ground and don’t shake or beat the trees….tho some did in fact do that. What a great harvest and I’m still eating delicious nuts and making pesto sauce from it: PESTO Fire roasted garlic one clove, raw pinyon nuts un crushed whole, finely chopped basil and a good hard Italian cheese. Like parm, not the shitty powder but grated from whole Chunk. Delish!

wow. how different thankyou for sharing your. culture.

Ashoge K’is Thank you sister for sharing this with the world. I am grateful to have piñon trees on my land. Great video. Dah Nzhoo

Wado! Aho! Beautiful video, appreciated it so much. I recently went camping in Nevada and was surrounded by desert sagebrush, juniper cedar trees with berries, agave plants, and what looked very much like pinyon pine that had pitch seeping from some of them! Just found out it was single leafed pinyon pine. Still learning all my pines lol. Many blessings for this video💕

Wow made me totally miss picking pinions with my ma'sán so much! She's been gone almost 30 yrs! Loved the stories she'd tell, while we were picking

Thank you, very instructive video. Great to see a phase of history in ancient nutrition as it's unfolding. Today, April 9, 2020, i've tried my first pinyon pine niddle tea. The aroma was incredible! Kanab, Ut. its beautiful!

Gladly you guys still hold old traditions of Pinon picking.. it really did change of picking pinion..

Thanks for sharing this knowledge. Native culture is the best survival knowledge! Native girls are so cute! ATB from Italy! Roberto.

Oh the memories as a child. I sure miss picking and eating them. thanks for sharing.

Thank you for the tip with the baking soda!!!! Lovely video, l felt like l was there with you, great job!!!!

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I love pinon nuts! I am from New Mexico and we use to harvest the pine nuts and it is hard work, which why they are so expensive!

I forage in Vermont where I live (mushrooms and plants). Have never thought to look for pine nuts. If I'm ever in Arizona I would love to go picking with you.

ty Shanna wonderful info!! please make more vids!!!

I seen them all over I25 coming south from Springer, NM gathering the nuts amazing.

When I saw pine nuts at the store I thought it was the same nuts that grows where I came from. I recently found out on KZfaq they’re different. The cedar nuts taste and look similar. We used to climb up the tree and collect cones, even raw.

love this

Thank you very much I will continue this method in my family

Thank you very much 😊

Wonderful! My wife and I really enjoy picking pine nuts. Thank you for sharing your experience and heritage. So important!

I sat with three Navajo kids in front of a store in a small town of Arizona one day eating Pinyon Nuts. I got more shell than anything. The Navajo kids popped them in their mouths and then spit out the entire shell in seconds. It takes culture and dexterity to do that. I buy the already shelled ones.

#Hopi #HopiGirl Thank you for picking & keeping this around to this day. I buy them here in Phoenix, once a year and they come sell here in the city.

The video brought back many great childhood memories pinion picking. As Bob Hope would say," Thanks for the Memories". Thanks for the video also. '

Thankyou for your experience

great stuff! won't shake the tree! 😎

I love it. I will try to get to the mountains this month. Sticky hands.

This is beautiful!

this was wonderful --thank you!!

Awesome video , thank you so much for posting ! 😊👍💖

Thanks for the great info!

Love picking pine nuts.

I’m doing this with my kids 🙏

Great video thank you!

That was really cool

I always wondered how to do tjis. thanks for sharing. 💓

Us Spaniards from Northern New Mexico have the same traditions. I love roasting them in a pan with salt.

Thanks for sharing 😊

I use to pick pinons...it's tedious & if you wear your best clothes....you'll come home with sticky resin...and if you want ready picked pine nuts they are EXPENSIVE! !!! I use to pick my own & roast & salt it...IT'S DELICIOUS! !!! Memories....i live in the city now. 😒

Useful videotape

Nice....thank you.

Thank You , , ,

COVID and eating pinion, truly blessed.

Tlaskamati for sharing, most interesting to see and hear how pine nuts are harvested and I never would have thought they were roasted as well, but it makes sense, since squash seeds taste better roasted than raw. Back in the 70s I remember a news story by CBS and a Diné lady interviewed told that they now used vacuum cleaners to harvest the pine nuts! Makes more sense to harvest by hand because small stones and sticks could be suctioned up as well. Thumbs up and nari jaraskiii from Central Mexico! :)

Pinyon cones are so fragrant

Members mark pesto from sams club with pine nuts is amazing

Thank you for this video. I live in New Mexico, and my family never went to pick piñon and I want to try.

thank you! that was super! have you other trick or food finding in the forest? I want to show my kids. thanks

My Father talked about harvesting piñion pinenuts in Utah on the res

Thanks

This was great! Imma still shake the trees, but I’ll be sure to shake gently 😊I’ll be at White Mesa doing this at sheep camp.

i remember picking pinyons when i was a little kid

Thank you. You are very kind to share this. Pinion is a very fine nut. I wish they were easier to crack and shell. Is there a Navajo way for that. You could make a lot of money selling a pinion nut shelling machine.

Yum

looks good to me

Hi Shanna, I was curious to find out if pinyon nuts are the same as Italian pignoli. (the Italian gn has a silent g, it has the same pronounciation as the n with the tilde as in Spanish, as in "pinata".) I wonder whether you use them in traditional recipes, besides eating them roasted. Italian recipes that I know of call for pignoli in basil pesto, as a filler of baked stuffed peppers with bread crumbs, raisins and anchovies, and as the topping of an almond paste cookie (sometimes amaretto: peach pit nut paste); these cookies are called "pignoli". I will look for more of your videos. Thank you for sharing the folklore. I hope to hear stories from the elders in your family. Hugs from New York!

Yummy 😋 , anyone have any this year???

I miss picking and roasting pine nuts. Stores sell them for $5.00 for small amount.

I know Shanna! She's cool!

FYI - Pinons that grow in & around Navajo Area are called pinons. "Pine Nuts" are larger nuts & they come from pine trees. from larger acorns.

Thank you, I am learning … what would you say is the best way to store the pine nuts just in case you need them later in the year? Thank you again in advance :)

I love pine nuts

All the things Mother Earth gives us free for the picking, we are so lucky to be alive here for awhile. Wouldn't it be nice if we could bless Earth? Even though we are so small as individuals, maybe if we all did it at the same moment, we could do a blessing of Earth.

Hi Yaah Teeth mmmmm l miss pinon Hi to The Navajo Nation l love ... Ganado...

Hello there Shanna, any pinions this year at all??? I'm looking to buy some!!! Or go pick, I know it's kinda late. We went out this weekend with no luck 😞😢 please let me know. Thank you 🙏✌️🌹🌼💙

I wonder who still butcher's sheep to? I remember seeing it done. I can do it but it don't want to cut the throat.