{"id":2175,"date":"2017-01-29T04:00:31","date_gmt":"2017-01-29T09:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.woodturningpens.com\/?p=2175"},"modified":"2016-11-05T16:16:53","modified_gmt":"2016-11-05T20:16:53","slug":"2175-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.woodturningpens.com\/2175-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Pistachio"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
The tree that yields the edible, and highly popular, nut known as the “pistachio” in English, is known to botanists and other plant scientists by its Latin name Pistacia vera<\/em>.<\/p>\n Many sources list Iran, or Persia at the time, as the native source of P. vera<\/em> and Iran to this day remains, by far, the most significant producer of pistachio nuts for human consumption, with the United States in a far distance second place with less than half the Iranian production.<\/p>\n However, it may never be possible to know exactly where P. vera<\/em> originated simply because it has been a food source of humans since pre-historic times. Archaeologists at the Gesher Benot Ya’aqov site in Israel’s Hula Valley, dated to 780,000 years ago, found the remains of pistachio nuts, shells, and tools used to crack the nuts. Pliny the Elder noted that pistachios were introduced to Rome from Syria as early as 35 CE. While the exact location(s) in which the P. vera<\/em> shrub, or tree, originated may never be known with exactitude, we can know that it was well established and exploited by very early human societies in the Near and Middle East well before recorded history began.<\/p>\n