Pistachios: Part 1

Recently we went to go visit some of the hubby's family. His grandmother has a huuuuuuge garden. Last time we left with a HUGE box of garden fresh tomatoes to make homemade sauce. Other times we have left with boxes full of squash and peppers, grapes, and my favorite- Pluots. This time we left with a BOX of pistachios. Yes, grammy and I went out a couple hours before our departure and "whacked" (yes, its a technical term which describes the action of putting down tarps under the tree and taking either an old broom stick or pipe and hitting the pistachio branches to make the nuts fall) one of the many trees. The goal? To hull, dry,  and season my own batch(es) of nuts.

Here is the box:

What did I do to accomplish this goal? Well, first I set out to find a dehydrator..... which I did NOT find. So, I looked up how to dry them in an oven and set to work. 

Before anything, I got out my handy-dandy hulling contraption sent home with us by grammy.  Its a wire screen and a wood block. I put a handful (or 3) of pistachios at a time on the screen and rub them around the screen with the block. 

This ideally gets the skins off the pistactios so you can separate the good from the bad, ie- the ones with cracks VS the ones without cracks.

After hulling all the pistachios, I ended up with two big bowls of  good pistachios.

I then, put them in a thin layer on a baking sheet, and stuck them in the oven for 10-12 hrs at 140 degrees, stiring  once every hours (or so). 

And WHA-LA!!! Pistachios hulled, dried, and  ready to eat!!!! 

THIS is what my hands looked like halfway through the second day of hulling ......

.... just imagine what they looked like after! 

The only thing left to do? Salt them and make them taste REAL good!!!! 

Thanks, Grammy, for the nuts!