الفُسْتق .. كتاب في سبيل موسوعة علمية .. الدكتور أحمد ذكي

Pistachio

⏺ Its trees - such as palm trees - are male and female
⏺It sometimes lives up to 300 years
⏺The “age of majority” is reached after forty!

Pistachios are the most beloved “nuts” and the most expensive.
I lived among 170,000 pistachio trees surrounding the city of Aleppo in the form of a large forest... so I can tell you how pistachios are grown... and how they grow?!

Pistachios grow on trees - like other fruits - in areas with extremely hot and frigid summers
Cold in winter.

Pistachio trees, like palm trees, have males and females, and the female is the one that gives fruits in large quantities after they are grafted. These trees do not need much care from the farmer, as they grow in limestone lands, and when the tree grows and bears fruit, some of its fruits fall on the ground, and a small shrub grows. It grows on its own and is planted and grafted 12 years after it appears.

Four years after vaccination, the shrub begins to bear fruits, but not in commercial quantities. The pistachio tree is one of the long-lived trees, some of which live for 300 years. It does not reach its full growth and does not give its full production until it reaches over the age of forty, and at this age one tree - the female - gives 340 kilograms in one year.. This happened to trees next to Aleppo .

The female tree is spoiled, as it produces its fruits from September until December, after which it rests for almost two full years, during which it does not produce a kilo or two, and in the following year it begins to produce abundant fruits again...that is, it works for a year and rests for two years.

The pistachio - or the grain of understanding as they call it - is from
Fruits that have a high nutritional value. One kilogram of them contains 6,700 calories, while a kilogram of meat does not contain more than 2,500 calories!

Pistachios are sold salted and dried in cities far from where they are grown, but in nearby cities they are eaten raw or green, and in this case the fruit is inside a thin red shell, which is removed along with the other soft shell.

Some pistachios are open and some are closed. The first type blooms automatically on dew and moisture on moonlit nights, and farmers hear its sounds as it crackles on the tree.

The best type of pistachio is “Al-Ashuri,” which has abundant yields and is widespread in Aleppo. It cracks lengthwise on wet nights, unlike “Al-Alimi,” which has large fruits but does not crack. There are many other types, such as camel tab, qarsh, marwas, and batori. And others.

Pistachios are widespread in Syria, Lebanon and Iraq.

Syria is the most productive and exports quantities of pistachios to Europe and America amounting to approximately 50 per year, and another part is exported to Lebanon. While the entire region’s crop is estimated at about 300 tons per year, this number is subject to weather fluctuations and winds. For example, in 1931 the number fell to Only 22 tons due to the heavy snow that fell, which destroyed the crop.

As for pistachios in Lebanon, they are still growing. And it has
Lebanese farmers imported large quantities of pistachio seedlings and grafts, and grafted their own trees and other trees called (Petamos) with them, with excellent and successful results. It is expected that the first Lebanese production will appear on a large commercial scale within the next few years.

As for Iraq, pistachios grow in abundant quantities in the north around the city of Mosul and north of Baghdad.

He picks pistachios from the tree at dawn.
In the form of large bunches, they are spread after being dropped by hand, so quantities of them are sent to the local markets and sold raw and green... The people of Aleppo, for example, never buy fruits that have been picked a day ago, but rather insist on buying the same day’s crop..

- Canning pistachios:

Pistachios are a fruit that has great nutritional value, and people’s popularity and love for them make them a national wealth that must be encouraged and developed.

America exports to the Middle East peanuts, almonds, and walnuts salted in sealed cans, sold in our markets, while our pistachio crop exceeds all of these types in quality, taste, and nutrition. So why don’t we open a factory (for canning pistachios) like canning fruits and vegetables?!

This project is one of the successful projects that must be thought about and worked on implementing, until it becomes (the pill of understanding) spread throughout the world inside locked metal boxes, made in Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq.