After a long absence, pistachios are back in your boxes this week.  Like all nut crops, pistachios are harvested once a year, in the fall, and stored for the rest of the year at cold temperatures.  Last year, we had a terrible pistachio crop due to the wet weather, and we ran out of nuts in late spring.  This year, the nuts were harvested in late September -- later than usual -- and we have just received the first batch back from the processor.

All nuts go through processing.  When they are first harvested they are still "green" and full of moisture.  At this stage, some of them are edible for a short time -- green pistachios are a delicacy in the Middle East -- but they will then begin to mold.  So the vast majority are dried using hot air, essentially baked at a low temperature.  Almonds are harvested early enough in the summer that they usually shaken onto the ground under the trees and left there for a week to partially dry in the sun.

Pistachios and all other nuts also have a hull that must be removed before further processing.  This is done before they are dried, using water jets and agitators.  As part of this process, most of the nuts that are empty inside -- aka "blanks" are removed because they float.

Once nuts are hulled and dried, they are fairly shelf stable and can be stored in refrigeration until the next step in the processing.  For pistachios, this is called "needle picking".  A certain percentage of Pistachios split open naturally on the trees just before harvest -- no other nuts do this.  These are separated from the "non-splits" by a large cylinder covered with needles that picks up the nuts and drops them on a different conveyor belt.

Split pistachios are almost always roasted, and usually salted, in shell and sold as a snack food.  This is what is in your box today.

Closed shell, or "non-splits", must then be cracked to extract the nut meat and separate it from the shell.  If you've ever stopped and looked at a single pistachio nut before you toss it in your mouth, you may have noticed how small it is.  It takes a huge amount of inshell pistachios to make a pound, which is why the "kernels" cost so much.  In a normal year, out of a total of several thousand pounds of pistachios, we get just a few hundred pounds of kernels.  That's why you won't ever see them in your CSA box.

Pistachio trees are reliably unreliable producers.  Our orchard has produced as much as 15,000 lbs of nuts in its best year and little as 6,000 in its worst.  While they are supposed to alternate, one heavy year and then one light, we have now had two light years in row.  For this reason, we starting farming a second organic pistachio orchard this year  and hope that will guarantee a better supply from year to year.  Amazingly enough, the new orchard -- just a mile or so away from ours -- had a bumper crop this year.  So you will see plenty of pistachios in your 2013 boxes.

Recipe:  Escarole and Broccoli Salad with Anchovies
Escarole and Broccoli:  the only two ingredients in your box this week that won't keep til after the holidays.  I apologize for two recipes in a row featuring roasted broccoli, but I feel like it is simply the most interesting way to cook broccoli.

Preheat the oven to 400 (alternately, you can saute, steam or parboil the broccoli).

Trim 2 heads of broccoli and cut the florets apart.  Peel the stem and cut into bite size pieces.  Drizzle with 1 T. olive oil, sprinkle with salt, and roast on a baking sheet for 20 minutes.  Stir a few times.

Separate the white and yellow inner leaves of 1 head of escarole from the tougher outer leaves (reserve them for cooking).  Separate the blanched leaves and wash and dry them.

In a food processor, combine 2 anchovy filets, 1 minced clove of garlic, 1 egg yolk, 4 T. olive oil, 3 T. chopped parsley, and 2 T. lemon juice.  Puree until smooth.  Taste and season with salt and pepper.