Where Do Pistachios Come From?

This surprising green nut comes from Iran and California. It is unique in its flavor and so enjoyable they will have you going through a five-pound bag in no time.

The largest two producers of pistachios in the world are Iran and California. According to recent accounts, California has more than 90,000 acres of pistachio trees that produce approximately 150 million pounds of pistachios a year. Depending on the year, Iran and California trade back and forth in holding the number one and number two spots for world producers of pistachios.

The pistachio has been around at least for the last 9,000 years of recorded time so you have to go back quite a ways to answer the question of where do pistachios come from. The oldest reference to them is in the Bible. They were part of a gift sent to the Queen of Sheba by King Solomon. She was so taken with the nuts that she allocated the entire Assyrian years production of pistachios for her own personal use.

During the 1880s, American importers began acquiring pistachios from Europe and the Middle East for sale to Middle Eastern immigrants and American citizens of Middle Eastern descent. 

Where Are Pistachios Grown?

Pistachios are grown on one of the oldest nut trees that flower during the spring. The trees must be grown in a semi-desert region to ensure a satisfactory crop. The pistachios grow in grape-like clusters on the tree and have a casing that is like a husk. When the nuts are ready for harvest, the hull turns a rosy pink color and the shells within the husk crack open. This usually occurs in September.

History of the California Pistachio

The beginnings of the California pistachio production is an interesting story. Going back to 1929, a plant scientist spent six months in Persia combing through pistachios to find the best pistachios he could use as seeds to begin a pistachio farm. California is a semi-desert environment which is ideal for pistachio trees. He returned to California with a twenty-pound bag of kernels.

The following year, the seeds were planted to begin an experimental farm. His vision was strong,  but it would take seven to ten years for the trees to grow to maturity. He began evaluating the trees every year and in 1950, he found what he was looking for: a tree that produced outstanding fruit. To strengthen the tree, it was grafted to a tree of a heartier root stock. With a proven product, word spread and planting expanded rapidly through until 1960.

The only drawbacks to the farmers that took a chance and began to farm pistachios was the seven to ten year maturity time before production would begin and the fact that pistachio trees produce fruit in an alternating year method. Alternating years will be a heavy crop and then the next year it will be a lower crop. Adjusting to this change in planning and income for the farmers took some adjustments.  All the planning and faith paid off big. The first commercial crop of pistachios arrived in 1976, yielding 1.5 million pounds of nuts. All those nuts were produced from a mere 1,500 acres of trees. Since that time, planting has boomed and as of now, the total acreage of pistachio groves in California is 90,000. The expected yield is more than 100 times as many as that first crop.

Processing Pistachios

Pistachios must be processed within 12 to 24 hours of picking. This entails hulling and drying the nuts. If this is not done within this short window of time, the shells will become discolored and it will reduce the value of the crop. Some of the nuts are held back to be dyed, typically a red color, for customers that prefer their pistachios in a color other than that of the natural shell.

Modern harvesting companies have developed specialize machinery to simplify the entire harvesting task. The development costs of this machinery ran into the millions of dollars, but now it has made possible the processing of more pistachio nuts than ever before.