The fall season in New Mexico is underrated. The changing of the leaves, the smell of green chile roasting outside any given grocery store, the start of fall sports… all of it is a feeling you cannot appreciate until you fully experience it.
This fall is especially unique for northern New Mexico as the trees are producing massive amounts of the sacred piñon that only comes around every few years. As you drive between Questa and Taos, cars are pulled off to the side of the road, while hopeful Norteños and visitors pepenar pinon, picking and collecting.
When I was a kid, I remember going to pick piñon with my grandma Olivia, and her best friend Viola, along with my tia Eloisa. We all went our separate ways as they used coffee tins to collect the nuts. I remember not wanting to take a tin because that was something old people did, so I opted for a grocery bag. As we were walking back to the car, I recall feeling my very full grocery bag start to give way and within a split second, two hours of picking broke through my bag and spilled all over the ground. I looked at my grandma in disbelief as I was trying to come to terms with what had just happened. She looked at me as she held back the laughter and said, “Maybe you should’ve used a tin.”
My grandma called the next day to see if I wanted to go with them again, and I recall being so sore and exhausted. “Mija, no mas ponte Vicks and take some Ibuprofen and you’ll feel better. Anda, lets go!” she told me. I don’t know how they did it day after day, but now that I am an adult, I fully understand the sacred periods of harvest: I know why they pushed through the pain to get their annual supply.
These days, many people get creative to ensure they can pick enough to last a while and bring protective gear like pillows or knee pads to kneel as they collect the small nuts. Others attempt to make contraptions that will pick the nuts and sift out the debris.
Personally, I looked on Amazon to see if anyone had patented a device to make my collection endeavors easier. Unfortunately, no such thing exists yet, but I guarantee the person who creates it will be a rich person after a bountiful harvesting season.
I asked my cousin Marsha Martinez to share her method for preparing pinon. She tells me to be sure to rinse the nuts well, removing any debris or piña needles from the batch. Once they’re cleaned, wet them again and lay them out evenly on a cookie sheet. Put them in your oven at 300 degrees for 5 or 6 minutes, then do a taste test. If the nut is still white and soft, it’s not ready and you will need to keep roasting it. It’s important to shake the sheet to ensure the heat is evenly distributed throughout the pan. The nuts won’t take more than 10 minutes total to roast, but taste testing it and shaking the pan is key to making perfectly roasted piñon. After it’s done, you’ll want to spray it with water and sprinkle it with salt for taste.
Happy Pepenando Season!
