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picked some pecans this afternoon
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PostPosted: Sat Nov 06, 2010 12:52 am    Post subject: picked some pecans this afternoon Reply with quote
Looks like a good harvest this year:


Fuji F10

These are fresh fallen on the ground (another rainy day), in a week or less will be knocking them out of the trees.


PostPosted: Sat Nov 06, 2010 1:01 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
I always wondered how these taste compared to the european walnuts.


PostPosted: Sat Nov 06, 2010 1:48 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Orio wrote:
I always wondered how these taste compared to the european walnuts.


Orio, have no idea, but pecan pie is something to be experienced! Wink


PostPosted: Sat Nov 06, 2010 2:32 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Orio wrote:
I always wondered how these taste compared to the european walnuts.


Well, if European walnuts are anything like American walnuts, I can offer a bit of an explanation. American walnuts usually have a rather neutral and somewhat meaty flavor, although occasionally you'll encounter one with some bitter flavor to it, which I think is mostly the skin (not the shell, but the skin covering the white flesh of the walnut kernel). Pecans have a somewhat similar flavor, but it is distinctly sweeter. Pecans are not very sweet -- just slightly sweet. A little sweeter than almonds or pistachios. And pecan pie, as Katastropho indicates, really does bring out the flavor of pecans, while surrounding them with a thick, sweet, gooey confection and a flaky crust. Yum.

We have a huge pecan tree in our back yard and smaller ones that have sprouted up here and there from the nuts squirrels have dropped. Speaking of which, we can generally get a pretty good haul of nuts from our pecan tree if we are prompt about it, or else the neighborhood squirrels will eat them all.

Surely, though, you can find imported pecans in Italy, Orio? We can find all sorts of imported foodstuffs from Italy over here.


PostPosted: Sat Nov 06, 2010 3:05 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Michael, niche exotic fruits (I know this must sound strange to your ears referred to a popular fruit as Pecan, but everything is relative Smile ) are usually sold in specialized shops in the cities. I live in a small town, and here the only exotic fruits that you can readily find are the most widespread, such as pineapple, mango, papaya, et c., and they are not cultivated in the native Asian or South American countries, but in closer warm countries like Lebanon, Israel, Morocco, or Southern Italy or Spain.
Sure I could order some Pecan and maybe have it delivered here in some days. But I think the bigger obstacle is, I don't think there are Pecan plantations in Italy, and maybe only a few in the whole EU. So probably the import cost of Pecans would be prohibitive - and that I think explains why they are rare to be found here.

Regarding Italian food available in the US, according from the reports I read, a lot of it may not be Italian at all. I live in a province where food is our main industry, with a few top products like Parmigiano cheese or Parma ham or Salame Felino that are top level "elite" productions, so we get a lot of information about these topics from the local press, which is very concerned about the theme. Reports show numbers of falsification of products that are impressive, reaching for some products more than the 50% of the total quantity sold in foreign countries. Our local top products are denomination-protected (just like French wines, to give you a comparison term) and are very expensive even here where they are made and we have zero distribution and import costs, let alone in the foreign. Local producers keep complaining that in the USA especially, but also in EU countries, our products are imitated by local factories and have not only not the quality, but often not even a similar taste to what they should taste like.

Hm but I am jepoardizing Bill's thread... sorry Bill !
Are you able to cook the pie with your garden's fruits? Or will you resort to the help of some helpful ladies? Smile


PostPosted: Sat Nov 06, 2010 4:25 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
No problem, Orio, enjoying this discussion. No, I'll have a couple ladies do
the baking. The pie is especially nice warmed in an oven, then have thin
shavings of heavy French vanilla ice cream melting on it. Wink Well, it's
one of my faves, anyway.


PostPosted: Sat Nov 06, 2010 5:08 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Katastrofo wrote:
No problem, Orio, enjoying this discussion. No, I'll have a couple ladies do
the baking. The pie is especially nice warmed in an oven, then have thin
shavings of heavy French vanilla ice cream melting on it. Wink Well, it's
one of my faves, anyway.


Sounds delicious!
It's a good thing for me that it's not available here - nuts in general are caloric bombs, something of which I do not have need Sad


PostPosted: Sat Nov 06, 2010 5:25 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Wow, Orio, this is interesting. I've never heard that there's essentially a "counterfeit" operation of falsely labeled Italian food in the US. If this is going on, let me say, it pisses me off. Because we're not getting any price breaks either. I don't know what you have to pay for geniune Parmesan cheese, but my wife insists on buying the good stuff, especially Parmesan and Reggiano -- at like $12 or more a pound. And prosciutto at close to $20 a pound. We also buy extra virgin olive oil that's supposed to be from Italy and we pay a premium for it as well. Pricey stuff, so obviously we don't buy lots of it.

Too bad you can't get your hands on pecans though. Maybe we can do something about that. Pecan trees are native to North America, and I don't know if they've been exported to other countries.


PostPosted: Sat Nov 06, 2010 5:41 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
cooltouch wrote:
Wow, Orio, this is interesting. I've never heard that there's essentially a "counterfeit" operation of falsely labeled Italian food in the US. If this is going on, let me say, it pisses me off. Because we're not getting any price breaks either. I don't know what you have to pay for geniune Parmesan cheese, but my wife insists on buying the good stuff, especially Parmesan and Reggiano -- at like $12 or more a pound. And prosciutto at close to $20 a pound. We also buy extra virgin olive oil that's supposed to be from Italy and we pay a premium for it as well. Pricey stuff, so obviously we don't buy lots of it.


We have printed trademarks on the Parmigiano and Prosciutto di Parma, you can see the Parmigiano trademark here:
http://www.agraria.org/prodottitipici/parmigianoreggiano.jpg
the Parmigiano-Reggiano has the name and the symbol printed all over the crust. But they can counterfeit the stamps also of course. It Italy it's easier to fight the counterfeits, because obviously it's our country, but in foreign countries often it's difficult to have the local police monitoring these facts, also because there are local factories and local workers and not always there is the will to prosecute them in order to defend a trademark of a foreign country.
This is the printed trademark of Prosciutto di Parma:
http://www.academiabarilla.com/anteprima_marchio-prosciutto_0494.aspx
When you do not see these printed trademarks, you can be sure the products are not original. But unfortunately, when you do see them, this is not enough guarantee that the product is original. You should buy only from shops that you trust and that have a reputation of quality products and commerce.

cooltouch wrote:
Too bad you can't get your hands on pecans though. Maybe we can do something about that. Pecan trees are native to North America, and I don't know if they've been exported to other countries.


Yes, I know Pecans are native to USA, I 3D-modeled the tree for my job in the East USA Tree Library Smile. In botaincal gardens, I saw several nut trees from the USA (the Texas Little Walnut, the Hickories, like SHagbark Hickory, and the Juglans nigra whose common name now escapes me). But unfortunately I could never see the Pecan. I also doubt that it is really cultivated in Europe. Maybe there are some small cultivations here and there, but I don't think anything at industrial level.
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