for its stem fibers. And sesame comes from
two words in the ancient Middle Eastern
Akkadian language that meant “oil” and
“plant.”Pine Nuts Pine nuts are gathered from about a
dozen of the 100 species of pines, one of the
most familiar evergreen tree families in the
Northern Hemisphere. Among the more
important sources are the Italian stone pine
Pinus pinea, the Korean or Chinese pine P.
koraiensis, and the southwestern U.S. pinyons
P. monophylla and P. edulis. The nuts are
borne on the scales of the pine cone, which
takes three years to mature. The cones are
sun-dried, threshed to shake out the seeds, and
the kernels then hulled, nowadays by machine.
They have a distinctive, resinous aroma and
are rich even for nuts; Asian pine nuts have a
higher oil content (78%) than either American
or European types (62% and 45%
respectively). They’re used in many savory