Pine nuts are slow to mature - and harvest. Photo: Andy Wiltshire
"Sweet little orbs of good taste" from a Marlborough pine nut producer have scooped the top prize at the 2023 Outstanding New Zealand Food Producer Awards.
The southern hemisphere's only pine nut producer, Marlborough's Pinoli Premium Pine Nuts, has been named supreme champion at the awards 2023 Outstanding New Zealand Food Producer Awards.
Pine nuts are slow to mature - and harvest. Photo: Andy Wiltshire
In Auckland on Tuesday, head judge Lauraine Jacobs said the judging panel, comprising local and international food experts, were impressed by the tiny nuts' flavour, aroma and freshness.
"The judges were excited by the fresh taste of these high-quality nuts and unanimous in their acclaim for these sweet little orbs of good taste," she said.
Marlborough company Pinoli Premium Pine Nuts has been named Supreme Champion at the 2023 Outstanding Food Producer Awards. Photo: Supplied
"This outstanding product involves intensive work and is a fine example of careful monitoring throughout growing, harvesting, processing and packaging to bring a consistently brilliant product to market. Pinoli Premium Pine Nuts are an excellent local food that soar above any comparable import."
Growing pine nuts isn't for the impatient or time-poor - it takes eight to 10 years for the first crop to be ready for harvest.
Pinoli's founders, Andy Wiltshire and Lee Paterson, planted their first orchard of Mediterranean stone pines (also known as Pinus pinea) in Marlborough's Wairau Valley in 1998. This varietal produces nuts with the highest protein content of any pine nut (34 percent by volume), making them sought-after by chefs.
One of Pinoli Premium Pine Nuts' stone pine plantations. These trees are 18 years old. Photo: Supplied
Twenty-five years later, Pinoli's orchards include more than 500,000 trees planted on 540 hectares. The trees grow for decades and are not clear-felled like pinus radiata, so slash is not an issue.
In 2013, the company built a high-tech processing plant that extracts the nuts and prepares them for sale both in New Zealand and around the world.
Nearly 300 locally harvested, grown and made food and drink products were entered in the awards, which are now in their seventh year.
Jacobs said the high level of praise for locally produced meat reflected "the fine work" being done by Kiwi farmers.