Californians Are Nuts About Nuts

What could be a more versatile food than a simple nut? For many, a nut-less diet would lose much of its interest.

Nut-less candy bars? Almost unthinkable.

No fresh basil pesto sauce? A summer pleasure lost.

Ice cream toppings minus the crunch or a walnut-less Waldorf salad?

No thanks.

Indeed, walnuts, macadamias, pistachios, almonds and pecans are a prevalent ingredient in the national diet.

Consider the English (also called Persian) walnut, a nut with origins dating back 7,000 years. Like many other horticultural treasures, walnuts first appeared in California with the arrival of Franciscan fathers from Spain and Mexico. Santa Barbara County was the original site of the state’s first commercial grove.

These days, most of the state’s 195,000 acres of walnuts blanket Central and Northern California and account for 98% of the United States commercial crop, and two-thirds of the world’s production.

*

And the news on nuts and their fat content may not be totally one-sided. A one-ounce serving of walnuts contains 182 calories and 17.6 grams of fat, which means 87% of the calories are from fat. Clearly, given the U.S. Surgeon General’s guidelines of eating a total diet of 30% or less of calories from fat, this nut is on the fat side.

But according to a study conducted by researchers at Loma Linda University and published in the New England Journal of Medicine in March 1993, walnuts, when consumed in moderation (one to two ounces) five or more times a week, and coupled with decreased consumption of fatty foods, were found to significantly lower the risk of heart attacks in men by decreasing levels of serum cholesterol. This is because some of a walnut’s fat is composed of omega-3, which has cholesterol-lowering properties.

Almonds, like walnuts, are an important part of California’s agricultural scene. Not only are almond trees beautiful to look at, but they are also one of the state’s largest tree crops in terms of acreage and dollar value, providing all of America’s needs and over half the world’s supply.

In early spring, when portions of California’s historic Highway 99 are lined as far as the eye can see with a fluttering sea of blossoming almond trees, sightseers head for the roads around Fresno, one of the state’s major agricultural centers, to enjoy the fragrant explosion of blooms (which usually lasts from February through May) along Fresno County’s Blossom Trail.

Almond trees grace almost every California Mission garden along the historic El Camino Real, the road followed by the first Spanish missionaries. Today, California is still the only state in the nation to produce almonds commercially.

Art Nunes, of Nunes Farms in Newman, is one among the 7,000 California farmers who farms the gourmet nut. Most of Nunes Farms’ crop is sold in bulk to cereal and candy manufacturers. Along the way, however, Art’s wife Joann developed recipes for dry-roasted and honey-glazed almonds and the prize-winning almond caramel chews that the company distributes by mail order.

*

Macadamias have become synonymous with Hawaii, but contrary to popular belief, that state wasn’t the first to consider commercial production of the elegant nut. The aborigines of eastern Australia knew of the nut long before the Western world elevated it to its superstar status. In 1857, Ferdinand von Mueller, the first European botanist to identify a macadamia nut tree, named it for his friend John Macadam, a scientist living in Australia. A few specimens were brought over to Berkeley in the late 1890s, and only subsequently introduced to Hawaii as a commercial crop. Eventually, macadamias migrated south to San Diego County, where the handsome trees come in all shapes and sizes at places such as Cooper’s Nut House, in Fallbrook.

“We planted a few trees after a friend introduced us to the macadamia in the late ‘60s,” says owner Tom Cooper, “and we’ve been adding ever since.”

Here, interested parties learn that the Beaumont grows to a pyramid shape, as does the Coopers’s namesake, the first dwarf variety in California. The diminutive store, nestled under a canopy of regal trees, is stocked to the gills with macadamia turtles, macadamia brittle and freshly roasted macadamias, all available by mail order.

Jim Russell, for several years the president of the California Macadamia Nut Society, is also a pioneer in the field.

“Macadamia trees are very independent,” he explains. “Every time you plant a seed you get another variety.”

One of the drawbacks of fresh macadamias is that they are the hardest to crack. Indeed, after picking, the nut must be dried and cured, and then roasted for several hours in very low heat. Macadamias, like other nuts, are high in monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats, and high in fiber and Vitamin E. To ensure the most healthful results, Russell recommends using shelled, unsalted, raw California macadamias for cooking.

Unlike macadamias, pecans are relative newcomers to the California nut scene, thanks to growers like Irene Spensley and her husband Bob. What began as a hobby in the mid-’70s eventually led the Spensleys to establish a grove of 80 acres in Clovis, Calif. and to win first prize at the Annual Western Pecan Growers Conference in 1991.

*

Cal-Pecan, the company they founded, is now one of the largest suppliers of pecans in California. This poses no great threat to other U.S. pecan producers, but, thanks to growers like the Spensleys, Californians are being introduced to the subtle differences among the Shoshone, Cherokee, Wichita and Cheyenne pecan varieties. Irene’s taste leans toward the Cheyennes, “the smallest and sweetest of the lot,” she says.

Another fairly recent import is the pistachio, which has taken to the state’s climate and topography with a vengeance. Indeed, the Golden State has steadily been catching up to Iran, the world’s leading producer of pistachios since 1976, date of the first commercial harvest in California. So much so, that California now ranks as the second-largest pistachio producer in the world.

The pistachio, a relative of the mango and the cashew nut, is native to the Middle East. The first ones to reach American shores from that area were originally dyed red by importers to camouflage defects in the shell, leading to the mistaken belief held by many unsuspecting consumers that the nutshells were naturally bubble-gum pink in color. In their natural state, however, the small, tan-colored shells hang in delicate, grape-like clusters from the leafy medium-sized trees.

Among the state’s pioneers, Dolly and David Fiddyment have held a prominent place since the early ‘60s, when David became one of the first California farmers to turn to commercial pistachio production. The Fiddyment operation now includes a thriving mail-order business for their pistachio specialties.