WEBVTT - 9 Nutty Facts About Hard-Shelled Fruit 0:00:14.560 --> 0:00:17.920 You're listening to Part Time Genius, the production of Kaleidoscope 0:00:18.120 --> 0:00:19.120 and iHeartRadio. 0:00:23.840 --> 0:00:27.520 Guess what Will? What's that game? When I say brazil nuts, 0:00:27.760 --> 0:00:31.800 is there a specific country that comes to mind for you? 0:00:31.800 --> 0:00:33.880 Call me crazy, but I feel like there should be 0:00:33.880 --> 0:00:35.320 an obvious answer to this one. I don't know if 0:00:35.360 --> 0:00:38.800 this is a trick question, but I'm gonna guess Brazil. Yeah, 0:00:38.920 --> 0:00:41.559 it is a trick question. The answer I'm looking for 0:00:41.880 --> 0:00:46.960 was Bolivia, No, which actually produces almost as many brazil 0:00:47.080 --> 0:00:50.800 nuts as Brazil. Together, the two countries are responsible for 0:00:51.000 --> 0:00:54.440 ninety percent of the world's brazil nut crop, and Bolivia 0:00:54.520 --> 0:00:58.600 exports more of the processed and shelled nuts than Brazil. 0:00:58.960 --> 0:01:00.800 So if I go buy a back of trail mix 0:01:00.880 --> 0:01:04.399 with brazil nuts in it, I'm probably eating Bolivia nuts. 0:01:04.760 --> 0:01:08.480 M That's right, all right? So how come Brazil gets 0:01:08.480 --> 0:01:10.920 all the glory here? I mean, as with most things, 0:01:11.000 --> 0:01:15.880 blame the conquistadors, right. So, brazil nut trees are native 0:01:15.920 --> 0:01:20.360 to the Amazon, particularly Brazil, Bolivia, and Peru, and there's 0:01:20.360 --> 0:01:23.280 evidence that indigenous people ate the nuts as many as 0:01:23.319 --> 0:01:27.560 eleven thousand years ago. So when Europeans arrived in the 0:01:27.600 --> 0:01:31.520 early fifteen hundreds. They called their landing place Terra do Brazil, 0:01:31.880 --> 0:01:35.800 a reference to another tree the brazil Would and as 0:01:35.840 --> 0:01:38.680 they made their way across South America, they discovered these 0:01:38.760 --> 0:01:42.800 huge trees with big, delicious nuts, which they began calling 0:01:43.160 --> 0:01:47.080 chestnuts from Brazil what else? And one of the first 0:01:47.120 --> 0:01:51.800 European references to brazil nuts comes from Juan Alvarez Maldonado, 0:01:52.160 --> 0:01:54.920 a Spanish conquistador who relied on them to fuel his 0:01:55.040 --> 0:01:59.200 troops during an expedition through Peru. And later Dutch traders 0:01:59.200 --> 0:02:02.040 began impoort brazil nuts to Europe, where they became a 0:02:02.080 --> 0:02:05.120 popular treat at Christmas time, and from there they made 0:02:05.160 --> 0:02:07.880 their way to the US. But despite the fact that 0:02:07.880 --> 0:02:11.239 Brazil can't claim a monopoly on the nut and Bolivia 0:02:11.320 --> 0:02:14.160 produces a ton of them, the name just stuck. 0:02:14.520 --> 0:02:15.920 It does feel like the kind of thing that a 0:02:15.960 --> 0:02:18.320 really savvy marketing expert could help them solve. 0:02:18.680 --> 0:02:21.560 Right, Yeah, it's a branding problem, really yeah. 0:02:21.639 --> 0:02:23.480 I mean they just need a good slogan, like you 0:02:23.520 --> 0:02:25.959 can't spell brazil nut without Bolivia, you know. 0:02:26.000 --> 0:02:29.600 I feel like, actually, that's it. I think I nailed it. Yeah, 0:02:30.040 --> 0:02:33.320 let's keep brainstorming that one. In the meantime, though, today 0:02:33.360 --> 0:02:36.200 we have nine weird and wonderful facts about nuts and 0:02:36.280 --> 0:02:39.240 things that aren't technically nuts, but for all intents and 0:02:39.320 --> 0:02:42.919 purposes are nuts, like the brazil nut, which, yes we 0:02:43.000 --> 0:02:46.640 know it's a seed. We'll get into all that and more. 0:02:47.000 --> 0:02:47.880 So let's dive in. 0:03:06.480 --> 0:03:11.359 Hey, their podcast listeners, welcome to Part Time Genius. 0:03:11.440 --> 0:03:12.320 I'm Will Pearson. 0:03:12.440 --> 0:03:15.720 And because Mango couldn't be here today, we do miss you, Mango. 0:03:15.880 --> 0:03:19.120 Hope you're having fun. Our old pal Gabe Luzier is 0:03:19.160 --> 0:03:22.040 here with me instead. Gabe, it's always so good to 0:03:22.040 --> 0:03:23.560 see you. It's a pleasure. 0:03:23.919 --> 0:03:26.680 And over there in the booth shotgunning a can of 0:03:26.720 --> 0:03:29.720 mixed nuts and wearing a T shirt that says, hold on, 0:03:29.760 --> 0:03:31.520 let me make sure I'm getting this right. It says 0:03:31.680 --> 0:03:35.680 fancy nuts for a fancy man. Dylan, you never let 0:03:35.760 --> 0:03:38.560 us down. It's our pal and producer, Dylan Fagan. 0:03:38.720 --> 0:03:42.840 Ah that Dylan so fancy, so fancy, All right, Gabe. 0:03:42.880 --> 0:03:44.840 Well, before we go any further, I think we should 0:03:44.840 --> 0:03:47.520 get ahead of all the emails and comments that people 0:03:47.560 --> 0:03:49.480 are composing in their heads right now. 0:03:49.560 --> 0:03:51.400 You saw it coming. At the top of the show. 0:03:51.840 --> 0:03:54.680 We said this was an episode about nuts, and then 0:03:54.760 --> 0:03:58.760 we started by talking about brazil nuts, which, as you mentioned, 0:03:59.080 --> 0:04:01.280 are actually seeds. I feel like we're gonna have to 0:04:01.280 --> 0:04:03.640 say that repeated that we do get that, and this 0:04:03.800 --> 0:04:07.000 is going to be a recurring issue in this episode, 0:04:07.000 --> 0:04:09.080 so let's just get ahead of it and talk about 0:04:09.080 --> 0:04:09.480 it now. 0:04:09.720 --> 0:04:13.640 Yeah, okay, So here we go. The botanical definition of 0:04:13.680 --> 0:04:16.880 a nut is a dry, hard fruit with a single 0:04:16.960 --> 0:04:20.560 kernel inside a shell that doesn't split open when it matures. 0:04:21.160 --> 0:04:27.000 So this narrow definition excludes things like almonds, cashews, pine nuts, 0:04:27.040 --> 0:04:30.520 brazil nuts, even walnuts, lots of things you know which 0:04:30.560 --> 0:04:34.000 have nuts in the name. Walnuts in particular, are somewhere 0:04:34.040 --> 0:04:37.000 between a drup and a nut, so not quite And 0:04:37.360 --> 0:04:40.359 for the purposes of today's episode, we're using nut in 0:04:40.360 --> 0:04:44.160 the colloquial or culinary sense, meaning if you'd find it 0:04:44.200 --> 0:04:47.560 in a bin labeled nuts at the grocery store, we're 0:04:47.600 --> 0:04:50.280 calling it a nut. That seems fair enough, all right. 0:04:50.279 --> 0:04:52.280 Well, now that we've got that cleared up, let's move 0:04:52.320 --> 0:04:54.880 on to our next fact here, which concerns one of 0:04:54.880 --> 0:04:58.440 my favorite nuts, which is the pistachio. In fact, I 0:04:58.440 --> 0:05:00.960 have already eaten a handful of pistaschias today, I'm happy 0:05:00.960 --> 0:05:01.440 to report. 0:05:01.960 --> 0:05:04.800 So did you get caught up in the Dubai chocolate craze? 0:05:04.800 --> 0:05:08.000 Gabe A little bit. Yeah, I think the the high 0:05:08.080 --> 0:05:10.640 cost of the chocolate bars kind of curbed that a 0:05:10.680 --> 0:05:13.520 little bit, but I will admit I gave into temptation. 0:05:13.640 --> 0:05:15.840 I had to try it out, and yeah, I mean, 0:05:15.880 --> 0:05:18.960 pretty good pistachios hard to go wrong. Did the same thing. 0:05:19.240 --> 0:05:20.680 I'm a cheap chocolate eater. 0:05:20.800 --> 0:05:23.080 But it was funny, like you knew the craze was 0:05:23.120 --> 0:05:25.400 in fact a craze when you started seeing them at 0:05:25.400 --> 0:05:28.479 the checkout counter, like at your local convenience store. That's 0:05:28.520 --> 0:05:31.640 when I knew it had gone pretty far. But anyway, 0:05:31.680 --> 0:05:35.800 long before pistachios were associated with trendy candy, they were 0:05:35.839 --> 0:05:38.000 associated with red food dye. 0:05:38.320 --> 0:05:41.440 Oh yeah, yeah. I remember seeing red pistachios in the 0:05:41.440 --> 0:05:44.160 store when I was a kid, and you know, I 0:05:44.200 --> 0:05:46.480 would beg my mom for him. I insisted that they 0:05:46.520 --> 0:05:49.680 tasted better and she was like, no, that's just red dye. 0:05:49.720 --> 0:05:52.000 But I always wondered, you know why they did that. 0:05:52.600 --> 0:05:54.520 Well, to find the answer to this, we actually have 0:05:54.560 --> 0:05:57.680 to go back to the nineteen twenties, so over the years, 0:05:57.680 --> 0:06:01.120 there have been different claims about who first died pistachios red, 0:06:01.160 --> 0:06:03.839 and of course why they did that. But having spent 0:06:03.880 --> 0:06:05.120 a lot of time reading. 0:06:04.839 --> 0:06:08.000 About pistachios this past week, I'm choosing to believe the 0:06:08.040 --> 0:06:11.360 story put forward by a family owned Detroit based nut 0:06:11.360 --> 0:06:15.240 company called Jermac. They've been around since nineteen twenty four, 0:06:15.560 --> 0:06:19.440 and according to their official story, founder Frank Jermack Senior, 0:06:19.560 --> 0:06:21.560 was the first person to come up with the idea 0:06:21.560 --> 0:06:25.560 of dying pistachios red. So he did this for two reasons. 0:06:25.680 --> 0:06:28.360 So first of all, back then, almost all pistachios sold 0:06:28.360 --> 0:06:31.279 in the US were imported from Iran and Irani and 0:06:31.320 --> 0:06:35.200 pistachios have these reddish husks that discolor the shells during 0:06:35.240 --> 0:06:39.000 the roasting process, so red dye covered that up. Plus 0:06:39.000 --> 0:06:41.920 it had the added benefit of making pistachios maybe a 0:06:41.960 --> 0:06:44.839 little bit more eye catching, I guess which was really 0:06:44.880 --> 0:06:48.040 important here, because Germak began selling them in these penny 0:06:48.080 --> 0:06:51.520 vending machines. He gave his bright red pistachios the brand 0:06:51.560 --> 0:06:54.559 name red Lip, and during the Great Depression they became 0:06:54.640 --> 0:06:58.680 popular as a cheap, nutrient dense snack. So for decades 0:06:58.760 --> 0:07:02.839 Jermak dominated the US pistachio business. To put it in perspective, 0:07:02.960 --> 0:07:06.039 a nineteen seventy three Detroit Free Press story noted that 0:07:06.080 --> 0:07:09.159 of the eight thousand tons of pistachios processed in the 0:07:09.240 --> 0:07:13.120 United States that year, Germac handled five thousand of those. 0:07:13.640 --> 0:07:16.600 That is fascinating. But you know, now that I think 0:07:16.600 --> 0:07:18.840 about it, I can't remember the last time I saw 0:07:18.840 --> 0:07:22.000 a red pistachios for sale, Like, why did the stop? 0:07:22.240 --> 0:07:24.080 I'm the same way, Gabe. Actually, it was one of 0:07:24.120 --> 0:07:26.360 those things. I'd really not thought about it until we 0:07:26.400 --> 0:07:29.120 started talking about nuts this week. But it was a 0:07:29.160 --> 0:07:33.160 gradual change in response to market supply and consumer preferences. 0:07:33.320 --> 0:07:34.880 So a lot of people didn't like the way the 0:07:34.920 --> 0:07:37.920 red dye stained their fingers and their clothes. And in 0:07:37.960 --> 0:07:41.880 the nineteen seventies the California pistachio industry just took off, 0:07:42.200 --> 0:07:44.360 and it was these domestic nuts that didn't have the 0:07:44.440 --> 0:07:47.880 same discoloration issues of the important ones. And that was 0:07:47.920 --> 0:07:50.760 a good thing because since the nineteen nineties many consumers 0:07:50.840 --> 0:07:53.320 wanted to avoid artificial food coloring. 0:07:53.880 --> 0:07:54.360 But if you. 0:07:54.400 --> 0:07:57.520 Misread pistachios, or if you're curious and want to try 0:07:57.560 --> 0:08:01.520 some Germak does sell them now under the name Holiday Red, 0:08:01.880 --> 0:08:04.320 and they get their brilliant hue from a beat powder. 0:08:04.360 --> 0:08:08.200 So there's actually no dye needed to create these, all right, Yeah, no, 0:08:08.200 --> 0:08:11.880 no excuse not to reacquaint myself. Then that's right, that's right. 0:08:12.080 --> 0:08:15.440 But okay, that was a you know, a fascinating cultural 0:08:15.560 --> 0:08:18.120 journey through the recent past. But now let's go back 0:08:18.240 --> 0:08:21.160 thousands of years to the heyday of the Silk Road. 0:08:21.240 --> 0:08:24.800 You up for that, absolutely, all right. So a Purdue 0:08:24.920 --> 0:08:29.800 University researcher named Keith Weiste discovered a connection between the 0:08:29.840 --> 0:08:34.560 spread of languages across Asia and the humble walnut. So 0:08:34.840 --> 0:08:38.160 Wisti is a research geneticist who worked with the USDA 0:08:38.280 --> 0:08:41.360 Forest Service to study the genetic makeup of different trees, 0:08:41.400 --> 0:08:45.080 including walnuts. He and a team were analyzing samples from 0:08:45.240 --> 0:08:48.960 native walnut forests across Asia when they realized that many 0:08:49.040 --> 0:08:54.119 languages in the region had similar words for walnut. For example, 0:08:54.360 --> 0:09:00.560 in Kazakh, Kurghiz, and Uzbek it's yongok, which may some 0:09:00.640 --> 0:09:04.080 sense because these are all Turkic languages. But the more 0:09:04.160 --> 0:09:08.120 closely they looked at languages, maps and walnut DNA, the 0:09:08.200 --> 0:09:12.280 more patterns began to emerge. Like genetically speaking, it turns 0:09:12.280 --> 0:09:15.800 out that walnuts in eastern Iran are closely related to 0:09:15.840 --> 0:09:19.840 walnut trees in the Himalayas. So that's a line running 0:09:19.920 --> 0:09:23.000 almost due east to west, which is not a pattern 0:09:23.040 --> 0:09:26.800 you'd see if a tree spread organically. So left to 0:09:26.880 --> 0:09:30.560 their own devices, trees spread in concentric patterns as they 0:09:30.600 --> 0:09:34.640 gradually scatter seeds, not straight lines like we're seeing here. 0:09:35.280 --> 0:09:39.640 So by overlaying maps of walnut gene pools and major languages, 0:09:39.720 --> 0:09:43.400 the researchers concluded that the trees didn't spread by accident. 0:09:43.679 --> 0:09:47.320 They were planted by traders traveling along the Silk Road, 0:09:47.800 --> 0:09:51.079 making them the first known example of a forest station 0:09:51.679 --> 0:09:55.680 or planned establishment of tree cover where none existed before. 0:09:56.360 --> 0:09:59.720 I mean, it's astonishing that they can analyze walnut DNA. 0:10:00.240 --> 0:10:02.839 Thank you, I thought the same thing, Yeah, I mean, 0:10:03.000 --> 0:10:05.280 and this research has been going on for decades, but 0:10:05.640 --> 0:10:08.640 it wasn't until the advent of gene mapping technology that 0:10:08.720 --> 0:10:11.280 we could really start to solve this kind of mystery. 0:10:11.720 --> 0:10:13.200 That's just wild, all right. 0:10:13.200 --> 0:10:16.080 Well, here's a less positive use of technology, and that 0:10:16.280 --> 0:10:19.120 is nut crime, which sounds like a joke, but it's 0:10:19.200 --> 0:10:22.040 not funny when you consider that it cost California nut 0:10:22.040 --> 0:10:23.800 farmers millions of dollars. 0:10:24.080 --> 0:10:26.880 You know, we love a weird food crime story here 0:10:26.920 --> 0:10:30.240 at Part Time Geniuses. I know we've done entire episodes 0:10:30.240 --> 0:10:33.640 on cheese crimes and wine crimes, So tell me about 0:10:33.640 --> 0:10:34.959 the nut crimes. All right. 0:10:35.000 --> 0:10:38.360 So, the California nut industry is worth billions of dollars 0:10:38.400 --> 0:10:41.080 every single year, and the uptick and crime seems to 0:10:41.120 --> 0:10:44.120 have started around two thousand and nine. There was one 0:10:44.160 --> 0:10:46.200 report I read that linked this to the two thousand 0:10:46.200 --> 0:10:50.120 and eight recession. This is when consumer demand for electronics dropped, 0:10:50.160 --> 0:10:54.480 making gadgets a less attractive item for theft and resale. Now, 0:10:54.559 --> 0:10:57.000 nuts are always in demand, they last a long time 0:10:57.040 --> 0:11:00.480 before they spoil, and unlike flat screen TV, they don't 0:11:00.480 --> 0:11:04.560 have serial numbers or barcodes, so you really can't track them. So, 0:11:04.600 --> 0:11:09.480 between twenty thirteen and twenty seventeen, over ten million dollars 0:11:09.559 --> 0:11:13.160 of California almonds and pistachios were stolen, and the problem 0:11:13.200 --> 0:11:16.600 has gotten worse as organized nut thieves have become more sophisticated. 0:11:17.480 --> 0:11:20.160 So what does a nut heist even look like? 0:11:20.640 --> 0:11:22.920 Well, that's the tricky thing. Here it looks like a 0:11:23.000 --> 0:11:25.680 normal day at a nut farm. See, there's a complex 0:11:25.760 --> 0:11:30.440 web of growers, wholesalers, distributors, and retailers, all of whom 0:11:30.520 --> 0:11:34.040 contract with third party trucking companies to move these nuts 0:11:34.040 --> 0:11:36.560 from place to place. Now, one of the main ways 0:11:36.640 --> 0:11:38.679 nut thieves get their hands on the goods is by 0:11:38.720 --> 0:11:42.480 impersonating employees of a trucking company, So they create a 0:11:42.520 --> 0:11:45.880 fake cargo company, They show up early, and they leave 0:11:45.920 --> 0:11:49.360 with the loot before the real truckers arrive. Now, another 0:11:49.400 --> 0:11:52.080 problem is that some victims are hesitant to report this 0:11:52.200 --> 0:11:55.400 kind of cargo theft. They worry about bad pr They 0:11:55.440 --> 0:11:57.920 assume that once the nuts are gone, there's no way 0:11:57.960 --> 0:12:00.760 to get them back. And these cases are difficult to 0:12:00.800 --> 0:12:04.600 pursue because they involve moving products across state lines, which 0:12:04.600 --> 0:12:07.880 can make jurisdiction hard to determine as well. So a 0:12:07.960 --> 0:12:10.920 local police department might refer you to a federal agency, 0:12:11.040 --> 0:12:13.559 which might send you to a state agency, which might 0:12:13.600 --> 0:12:16.880 refer you back to the Feds. And unfortunately, even when 0:12:16.920 --> 0:12:20.040 the FBI has jurisdiction, they often lack the resources to 0:12:20.080 --> 0:12:22.600 go after small and medium sized cases that don't have 0:12:22.640 --> 0:12:25.200 a clear link to organized crime or terrorism. 0:12:26.040 --> 0:12:28.400 Now, I badly want someone to make one of those 0:12:28.440 --> 0:12:31.679 CSI shows about nut thefts, you know, to raise awareness 0:12:31.720 --> 0:12:36.240 about the problem. Well, we have to take a quick break, 0:12:36.280 --> 0:12:38.720 but when we come back, we have more nutty facts 0:12:38.720 --> 0:12:41.840 for you, including a rare medical condition caused by a 0:12:41.880 --> 0:12:45.600 popular salad topping, and the toughest nut to crack don't 0:12:45.640 --> 0:13:03.200 go anywhere. Welcome back to part time Genius. 0:13:03.240 --> 0:13:05.400 Now, before we get back to nuts, quick reminder that 0:13:05.440 --> 0:13:07.680 if you have a question or idea for the show, 0:13:08.080 --> 0:13:09.960 you can give us a call. You call us at 0:13:09.960 --> 0:13:13.120 three oh two, four oh five five nine two five. 0:13:13.200 --> 0:13:15.680 We always love hearing from you. We may even use 0:13:15.720 --> 0:13:18.120 your voicemail in a future episode if you're okay with that. 0:13:18.280 --> 0:13:21.360 But if you prefer text based communication, you can always 0:13:21.360 --> 0:13:24.920 email us at High Geniuses at gmail dot com. That's 0:13:25.160 --> 0:13:31.079 Higeniuses at gmail dot com. Okay, Well, my next fact 0:13:31.200 --> 0:13:33.920 definitely pushes the boundary of the word nut. Let me 0:13:33.960 --> 0:13:37.040 say that in advance, and I will admit this is 0:13:37.040 --> 0:13:39.360 a seed, but it's so cool I just had to 0:13:39.400 --> 0:13:42.960 include it. I'm talking about the Coco de mare aka 0:13:43.200 --> 0:13:47.400 the ccoconut or the double coconut, and in fact, it's 0:13:47.440 --> 0:13:50.280 the largest seed in the world and one of the 0:13:50.360 --> 0:13:51.000 rarest too. 0:13:51.400 --> 0:13:54.160 You know, I love coconuts, so I've decided to allow 0:13:54.240 --> 0:13:55.320 this exception as well. 0:13:55.880 --> 0:13:59.760 Thank you will, very gracious. So for centuries, these giant 0:13:59.800 --> 0:14:02.680 cos have washed up on the shores of the Maldives. 0:14:03.080 --> 0:14:06.600 It said that a Roman emperor once paid four thousand 0:14:06.679 --> 0:14:09.240 gold florins for one, which I assume is a lot, 0:14:09.520 --> 0:14:11.840 and you know, he had it mounted on a gold stand. 0:14:12.400 --> 0:14:14.920 And so finding one of these it was a big deal. 0:14:15.040 --> 0:14:18.320 They were prized items for sale or trade, and they 0:14:18.320 --> 0:14:21.600 were used for medicinal purposes too, But that doesn't mean 0:14:21.600 --> 0:14:24.440 that the average person who picked one up got to 0:14:24.560 --> 0:14:28.080 profit from it. At one point, any sea coconut that 0:14:28.320 --> 0:14:31.080 washed up on the beach was considered the property of 0:14:31.160 --> 0:14:33.880 the Sultan of the Maldives. He just claimed them. 0:14:33.880 --> 0:14:34.120 All. 0:14:34.520 --> 0:14:36.760 Wow, now you actually you've mentioned a couple times that 0:14:36.800 --> 0:14:39.160 they washed up there, So are you saying they don't 0:14:39.160 --> 0:14:41.160 grow in the mal thieves? Like they just floated there 0:14:41.200 --> 0:14:44.280 from somewhere else. Yeah, and for a long time no 0:14:44.320 --> 0:14:47.040 one knew where they came from. Legend had it that 0:14:47.080 --> 0:14:50.880 there was an underwater forest of exceptionally large palm trees, 0:14:50.920 --> 0:14:54.040 which sounds incredible, but the truth is pretty cool too. 0:14:54.440 --> 0:14:58.160 In seventeen sixty eight, a French explorer finally figured out 0:14:58.200 --> 0:15:01.000 where the cocoa de mare came from a pair of 0:15:01.080 --> 0:15:05.280 islands in the Seyshells, about three thousand miles southwest of 0:15:05.280 --> 0:15:08.400 the Maldives. So this is the only place in the 0:15:08.440 --> 0:15:11.800 world where the cocoa de mare grows. And as for 0:15:11.840 --> 0:15:15.040 how the seeds travel from there, well, it turns out 0:15:15.040 --> 0:15:17.880 that when the coconuts fall into the ocean, they sink 0:15:18.080 --> 0:15:20.600 because they're so heavy they weigh about up to fifty 0:15:20.600 --> 0:15:23.800 pounds each and they don't float until their insides have 0:15:23.920 --> 0:15:27.880 rotted away, which makes them unviable. So the seed can't 0:15:27.920 --> 0:15:31.960 spread beyond their native islands, but the rotten ones ride 0:15:32.080 --> 0:15:35.800 sea currents over to the Maldives. So this emperor paid 0:15:35.840 --> 0:15:39.400 a bunch of gold for a rotten seed. I guess, yeah, 0:15:39.440 --> 0:15:42.000 he sure did. But when you consider how rare these 0:15:42.040 --> 0:15:44.160 things are, I mean, I understand why he did it. 0:15:44.520 --> 0:15:47.160 And there's one more fun fact about this crazy coconut 0:15:47.160 --> 0:15:50.080 I have to share, because it's a double coconut. Remember, 0:15:50.320 --> 0:15:53.000 the two halves kind of look like a human butt, 0:15:53.160 --> 0:15:57.200 and the local Seychelles creole. It's not called a cocoa 0:15:57.240 --> 0:16:01.240 de mare. It's called a cocoa fess, which means yes, 0:16:01.880 --> 0:16:02.600 bum nut. 0:16:02.920 --> 0:16:04.640 Oh man, I feel like there's gonna be a lot 0:16:04.680 --> 0:16:07.320 of giggling going on on the listening of this episode. 0:16:07.320 --> 0:16:08.920 But who doesn't love a bomb nut? Right? 0:16:09.400 --> 0:16:11.960 All right, Well, let's continue with the tropical vibe for 0:16:12.000 --> 0:16:16.160 a moment. You've probably seen pistachios, walnuts, even almonds for 0:16:16.240 --> 0:16:19.239 sale in the shell, but there's one nut that's always 0:16:19.280 --> 0:16:20.640 sold shelled. 0:16:20.520 --> 0:16:24.640 And that is the macadamia nut. Yeah. I mean, I 0:16:24.720 --> 0:16:26.880 never thought about it, but you're right, I have never 0:16:26.920 --> 0:16:29.760 seen macadamia nuts, you know, in the shell. 0:16:30.000 --> 0:16:32.360 And there's a good reason for that. So macadamias are 0:16:32.400 --> 0:16:36.280 the world's toughest shelled nut. They require three hundred pounds 0:16:36.320 --> 0:16:39.400 of pressure per square inch just to crack. It actually 0:16:39.440 --> 0:16:41.560 makes you wonder, like back to the first person ever 0:16:41.640 --> 0:16:43.520 getting a taste to one of these, Like how they 0:16:43.600 --> 0:16:47.600 actually got to it. But you know, macadamias are native 0:16:47.640 --> 0:16:50.400 to Australia, but back in the late eighteen hundreds they 0:16:50.400 --> 0:16:53.040 were imported over to Hawaii, which is the place most 0:16:53.040 --> 0:16:56.560 Americans associate them with. Hawaiians call them mac nuts, and 0:16:56.600 --> 0:17:00.000 it's a huge industry there, a real source of local pride. 0:17:00.240 --> 0:17:02.680 But harvesting them requires a ton of work, as we 0:17:02.760 --> 0:17:05.679 mentioned before. So first the mature nuts fall to the 0:17:05.680 --> 0:17:08.679 ground and they're harvested. Then the husk need to be 0:17:08.720 --> 0:17:11.040 removed from there, and the nuts get dried out so 0:17:11.080 --> 0:17:13.840 that the meat stays fresher longer, and the shells get 0:17:13.840 --> 0:17:17.439 brittle and it makes them easier to crack open. So 0:17:17.560 --> 0:17:21.240 after that the processors have to use this specialized machinery, 0:17:21.320 --> 0:17:25.640 often imported from the Southern Hemisphere, just to open these nuts. Now, 0:17:25.640 --> 0:17:27.119 it may have gone down a little bit of a 0:17:27.200 --> 0:17:30.399 rabbit hole of the macadamia nut cracking equipment, and I 0:17:30.440 --> 0:17:33.320 have to say my favorite is the New Zealand company 0:17:33.440 --> 0:17:36.600 called Crackadamia. Of course, it's just such a great name. 0:17:36.640 --> 0:17:40.080 I loved it. They invented a macadamia cracking machine that 0:17:40.280 --> 0:17:45.000 uses hardened sharp steel knives attached to these heavy duty flywheels. 0:17:45.400 --> 0:17:48.320 Now there are other commercial macnut crackers out there, but 0:17:48.400 --> 0:17:50.960 you can't beat the name Crackadamia. 0:17:51.200 --> 0:17:54.160 Yeah, you really can't. I'm sure they're good at nut cracking, 0:17:54.200 --> 0:17:58.200 but they are really good at branding. That's their main thing. Yeah, yeah, right. 0:17:58.600 --> 0:18:01.879 Well I'm glad you brought up nutcrackers though, because that's 0:18:02.000 --> 0:18:04.280 what my next fact is all about. And I'm not 0:18:04.359 --> 0:18:08.200 talking commercial machinery. I mean those gadgets that your grandparents 0:18:08.240 --> 0:18:11.480 had lying around, or the decorative soldier guys you see 0:18:11.520 --> 0:18:15.200 at Christmas. People have used various tools to crack nuts 0:18:15.200 --> 0:18:19.520 for thousands of years. Apparently Leonardo da Vinci even brainstorm 0:18:19.600 --> 0:18:22.240 the best way to open nuts, and his solution was 0:18:22.320 --> 0:18:26.320 a huge horsepowered press. Wow, that would take up a 0:18:26.359 --> 0:18:28.840 lot of space in a kitchen yeah, yeah, right, or 0:18:28.880 --> 0:18:32.359 a barn. And you know, over the centuries, nutcrackers took 0:18:32.400 --> 0:18:36.959 different shapes, from simple utilitarian tools to colorful fancy dolls. 0:18:37.440 --> 0:18:40.920 The decorative nutcracker really took off in the nineteenth century 0:18:40.960 --> 0:18:44.879 over in Europe, where toymakers began making elaborate versions in 0:18:44.920 --> 0:18:49.400 their workshops. German author Eta Hoffman published his fairy tale 0:18:49.480 --> 0:18:52.800 The Nutcracker and the Mouse in eighteen sixteen, and in 0:18:52.840 --> 0:18:57.359 eighteen nineteen Chaikowsky turned it into the famous ballet. So 0:18:57.840 --> 0:19:00.560 you know, nutcrackers have a long history both as art 0:19:00.640 --> 0:19:04.200 and as a culinary tool. But there are only two 0:19:04.400 --> 0:19:08.560 museums in the world dedicated to nutcrackers. That's too few right, 0:19:09.400 --> 0:19:13.560 One in Germany and one in Levenworth, Washington. And the 0:19:13.640 --> 0:19:17.919 Levenworth Nutcracker Museum is the world's largest nutcracker museum, with 0:19:18.040 --> 0:19:23.320 over nine thousand handmade nutcrackers. It's run by Arlene Wagner, 0:19:23.359 --> 0:19:27.080 who recently turned one hundred and one years old. Happy birthday, Arlene. 0:19:27.480 --> 0:19:30.920 And She became interested in nutcrackers in nineteen seventy six 0:19:31.080 --> 0:19:34.360 when she was involved in a community production of the Nutcracker. 0:19:34.880 --> 0:19:37.639 Since then, she's traveled the world collecting them. One of 0:19:37.680 --> 0:19:41.120 the newest additions to her collection is a nutcracker modeled 0:19:41.160 --> 0:19:44.880 after her. It was made by some fans in Germany. 0:19:45.359 --> 0:19:48.200 It holds a nutcracker in each hand, a tiny little one, 0:19:48.320 --> 0:19:51.880 and it's wearing her signature string of pearls. So I've 0:19:51.880 --> 0:19:55.440 actually never even heard of Levenworth, Washington, but I kind 0:19:55.440 --> 0:19:58.159 of want to go there now, I mean road trip. 0:19:58.320 --> 0:20:01.960 What do you say, fly? It's pretty far gay Yeah, okay, 0:20:02.040 --> 0:20:03.879 that makes sense, all right. 0:20:03.920 --> 0:20:06.360 Well, since we're talking about Christmas, I have to mention 0:20:06.600 --> 0:20:10.359 roasted chestnuts. Of course, people ate roasted chestnuts before the 0:20:10.440 --> 0:20:13.600 Christmas Song was written in nineteen forty five. But then 0:20:13.640 --> 0:20:15.960 there's the question how did they become so associated with 0:20:16.000 --> 0:20:19.000 the holiday that Robert Wells and Meltormet included them in 0:20:19.040 --> 0:20:21.960 their lyrics. Well, the first part of the answer has 0:20:22.040 --> 0:20:25.840 to do with botany. Chestnut trees are resilient to cold, 0:20:26.000 --> 0:20:28.240 and the nuts are ready to harvest in late fall. 0:20:28.720 --> 0:20:32.679 But also, chestnuts were historically considered a substance food, and 0:20:32.680 --> 0:20:36.199 they're connected to a fourth century Catholic saint named Saint Martin. 0:20:36.640 --> 0:20:37.560 Now Martin was a. 0:20:37.400 --> 0:20:40.680 Lowly soldier and then a cold winter day he ripped 0:20:40.680 --> 0:20:43.320 his coat in half to share with a beggar. His 0:20:43.400 --> 0:20:47.000 feast day, November eleventh, became associated with acts of charity, 0:20:47.160 --> 0:20:51.160 including giving away nutritious food like chestnuts. To this day, 0:20:51.240 --> 0:20:55.120 many parts of Europe celebrate Saint Martin's Day with roasted chestnuts. 0:20:55.359 --> 0:20:58.320 The tradition came to the US, where American chestnut trees 0:20:58.440 --> 0:21:01.399 used to grow in abundance along the East Coast. Street 0:21:01.480 --> 0:21:04.520 vendors sold roasted chestnuts in East Coast cities because they 0:21:04.560 --> 0:21:09.040 were cheap and plentiful, and even tastier than their European counterparts, 0:21:09.040 --> 0:21:11.199 which are more starchy than they are sweet. 0:21:11.600 --> 0:21:14.080 You know, just like with red pistachios, I feel like 0:21:14.080 --> 0:21:18.520 you don't see roasted chestnuts much anymore. No, that's true, 0:21:18.520 --> 0:21:21.000 and our good pal Doug mac actually looked into that 0:21:21.119 --> 0:21:25.080 for his Snackstacked newsletter. So the conventional wisdom is that 0:21:25.160 --> 0:21:29.000 American taste for roasted chestnuts faded after a twentieth century 0:21:29.080 --> 0:21:32.560 chestnut blight wiped out most of our native chestnut trees, 0:21:32.920 --> 0:21:36.760 leaving us with these less tasty European imports. But Doug 0:21:36.880 --> 0:21:40.000 also discovered that that's not the whole story. So roasted 0:21:40.080 --> 0:21:42.160 chestnut vendors were still in the streets of New York 0:21:42.200 --> 0:21:45.280 as late as the nineteen sixties, apparently doing just fine. 0:21:45.359 --> 0:21:48.080 So I also dug into this and found newspaper articles 0:21:48.119 --> 0:21:51.720 from the seventies and eighties that raved about fancy French 0:21:51.760 --> 0:21:55.760 desserts like mont Blanc that were made with these imported chestnuts. 0:21:56.280 --> 0:21:59.399 So it's not entirely clear why roasted chestnuts disappeared, but 0:21:59.520 --> 0:22:02.920 one thing for certain. Next Christmas, you can always buy 0:22:02.960 --> 0:22:05.800 a bag and roast them in your oven. Martha Stewart 0:22:05.840 --> 0:22:08.080 says to set the tempt to three point fifty in 0:22:08.160 --> 0:22:11.479 order to do so. Okay, good to know all right, 0:22:11.720 --> 0:22:14.160 it is time for our final fact of the day, 0:22:14.359 --> 0:22:18.439 and it's about a mysterious condition known as pine mouth. 0:22:18.920 --> 0:22:21.680