Head into any party, bar, supermarket or home today around the world and it wouldn’t surprise you to find people munching away on pistachios. Although pistachios are widespread, though, very few people know much about them, like how they are grown, what the pistachio tree looks like (did you know pistachios grew on trees?) and when they are harvested. Hopefully, this FAQ will shed some light on these little “green pearls.”

Q: Where in the world are pistachios grown?

A: In the past, pistachios were an “exotic” and rare food, as they were mainly produced in Middle Eastern regions. Today they are still produced in these regions, though other locations have joined the pistachio-producing community. The United States produces 13% of the world’s pistachios. My little Sicilian village of Bronte, which is home to about 24,000 people, produces 1% of the entire world’s pistachios.

Q: Do pistachios really grow on trees?

A: Yes, pistachios DO grow on trees and the appearance of these trees is somewhat, well, surprising. They are not very tall at all, with the tallest ones reaching around 1.8 meters (around 6 feet). The trunk and branches of the pistachio tree are not very massive at all, but rather thin and scraggly looking. The leaves of the pistachio tree are actually a rare sight to behold, as they only appear when the tree is fruiting (in other words, when the nuts appear) and this only happens…every two years!!

Q: Why do the nuts only appear every two years?

A: No, the pistachio tree is not some kind of weird mutant tree; it’s actually a very typical tree and would normally follow the typical seasonal cycle, fruiting once a year like most other trees. The reason for the pistachio “peculiarity” lies in the behavior of the farmers of Bronte, or the Brontese farmers: they ingeniously noticed that the pistachio trees give higher quality nuts, and more of them, if allowed to “skip” one year of harvesting. If the tree rests one year, more energy is put into making fruit. So the Brontese farmers prune all the buds from all the pistachio trees one year, during which there is no harvesting of the nuts, and the following year they allow the fruits to grow normally and then nuts are harvested. Up to this day, pistachios are harvested every two years in the village of Bronte.

Q: Why are pistachios so difficult to harvest?

A: One word: resin. Imagine yourself bent under a pistachio tree, with a ferocious Sicilian sun beating down overhead, causing temperatures to reach over 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit). All of a sudden, while you are trying to pick every single little pistachio from the tree, you find yourself immobilized as your hair gets caught in the tree’s resin-covered, thin little branches. Trust me, it’s not something you would enjoy. Take my advice, if ever the opportunity arises for you, and especially if you have long hair, make sure you protect your head properly with a hat or a scarf (as an authentic Sicilian woman would do) before even getting close to a pistachio tree.

Q: What makes Bronte’s pistachios so unique?

A: The particular type of tree that produces the pistachios for which Bronte is so famous is not only restricted to the village of Bronte and its surrounding countryside, but it is also ONLY able to grow on lava rocks from Mount Aetna. That’s right, these trees will only grown on lava rock from Bronte. People have tried to plant the trees somewhere else, on dirt, on other kinds of lava rocks, on lava rocks from Aetna but moved to another place…all of these attempts failed.

Moreover, the specific botanical species of pistachio that is produced in Bronte, the Pistacia vera, is the only type that can be used in the preparation of any kind of sweets. Indeed, Bronte’s pistachios are almost never salted and eaten as you are probably used to eating other types of nuts.

Q: How else do Bronte’s pistachios differ from other types of pistachios?

A: Pistachios from Bronte are very distinct from the pistachios most people are used to. The first thing that catches the eye is their bright green color. Especially immediately after the pistachios are picked from their tree, their color is so intense and bright that you’ll think you are holding a tiny green light bulb in your hands. The fruit itself is a little smaller and more tapered than other varieties. The small green kernel is covered by a purple velvet-like peel; the peel can be either eaten or removed. Peeling Bronte pistachios is actually quite challenging; if the fruit is fresh and you are extremely patient, though, you’ll be rewarded.

Protecting the fruit we find the shell, which, when the fruit is ripe, spontaneously opens up and exposes the tip of the pistachio nut. As an aside, I remember the stories that my grandfather would tell about the numerous things villagers used to do with pistachio shells. In fact, if you are very careful when extracting the fruit and are able to leave one side of the shell intact, you can actually use that intact shell as a pair of “natural” tweezers; Brontese people used to use these pistachio tweezers to remove thorns or wooden splinters.

Outside the shell, there is the husk, or grolla as it is called in Brontese dialect, a leathery coat that changes color from red to pink to white, as the fruit matures. The grolla is the most scented part of the fruit. The aroma of the husk is so strong and penetrating that even the husk of a couple of pistachios is enough to infuse an entire room with the scent of pistachio.

Q: So what does the Bronte pistachio tree look like?

A: Even for people not at all interested in anything having to do with trees or plants, it’s actually quite an amazing experience to see these pistachio trees. They seem to be crawling out of the lava, with their branches that look like arms pulling themselves out of the rocks. If you are around the village in winter, when the sky is full of clouds, Mount Aetna covered in snow and a light fog down in the valley, the trees give the countryside an air of mysticism and magic that seems to be perfectly designed for the set of a fantasy movie being played out in some surreal landscape.