Piñon foraging season is right around the corner. Get your fix of this scrumptious and culturally significant food with these 9 piñon products worth tracking down.
The piñon pine provides more than just nuts for cuisine. Its essence is infused into perfumes and oils, its wood is chopped for scented fires, and its dried-up cones are used for fire starters — plus so much more.
- Los Poblanos Historic Inn & Organic Farm in Los Ranchos de Albuquerque features piñon in their Farm Shop products, including piñon bar soap and a piñon grove botanical fragrance. lospoblanos.com
- Taos Piñon Company offers a piñon bar soap and lotion that uses the sweet and distinguishable resin from the tree.
- Indian Pueblo Kitchen sells a Taos sage and piñon smudge bundle to purify and offer cleansing energy to any space, an ancient practice of burning native plant — smudging — central to Native American culture.
- New Mexico Piñon Coffee, with several coffee houses in Albuquerque and one in Rio Rancho, has a full drink menu including piñon bear claws for a treat and a piñon syrup to add to beverages.
- The Super Salve Company sells traditional piñon Navajo healing salve to rub on sore muscles.
- Artemisia Herbs, formulated from native New Mexico vegetation, sells osha cough syrup for youth using a mixture of lavender, wildcrafted piñon, beebalm, wildcrafted osha, wild cherry bark, and more natural resources at the Downtown Grower’s Market on Saturdays throughout the fall in Albuquerque.
- AlbuKirky Seasonings founders Kirk Muncrief and his wife, Cheryl Valadez, blend piñon and coffee for their red chile piñon coffee rub, available at grocery stores and food boutiques throughout New Mexico.
- Zia Soda sells refreshing sodas made in New Mexico, including Zia Ginger Ale, Zia Nopales Prickly Pear, and Zia Piñon Cola, blended and brewed with piñon nuts harvested from the mountains of northern New Mexico (available in 12 packs from madeinnewmexico.com/products/zia-sodas).
- New Mexico Piñon Nut Company is the only consistent place in New Mexico that can always provide the nut itself. Prices change annually due to crop availability.
Discover the history and significance behind the piñon nut and try these piñon recipes.
From our August/September 2024 issue.
PHOTOGRAPHY: Courtesy of vendors
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