Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of I Heart Radio, Hey
Speaker 1: brain Stuff Lauren Vogelbaum here. Pistachios are a tasty seed
Speaker 1: that grow on trees and have cream colored shells and
Speaker 1: green colored flesh. A pistachio green is a specific hue,
Speaker 1: soft yellowish green that was super popular in the fall
Speaker 1: of twenty nineteen. In Pantone's catalog, it's thirteen zero to
Speaker 1: two one. But there was a time when the pistachios
Speaker 1: that Americans ate were almost all dyed red, seed and
Speaker 1: shell so vibrant red that it would stain your fingers.
Speaker 1: So why were pistachios dyed red in the first place,
Speaker 1: and why aren't red pistachios around anymore. It all starts
Speaker 1: with a Syrian pstachio importer by the name of Zalum,
Speaker 1: who supposedly died his pistachios read to differentiate his product
Speaker 1: from that of his competitors and to hide any minor
Speaker 1: imperfections from harvesting. The pistachio is believed to be indigenous
Speaker 1: to the Middle East, specifically Iran, and has been widely
Speaker 1: cultivated from Afghanistan to the Mediterranean region and more recently
Speaker 1: in California, where it was introduced in eighteen fifty four
Speaker 1: as a garden tree. We spoke with Persian chef and
Speaker 1: writer Nashbia Batmanglige. She explained, for Iranians and Turks, pistachios
Speaker 1: play an important role in their culture in cuisine. For them,
Speaker 1: pistachios are everyday snacks, roasted, salted and sometimes with lime juice.
Speaker 1: There are pistachio cookies flavored with rose water and cardonmom
Speaker 1: pistachios of lamb raised with rose water and saffron, statio
Speaker 1: meatballs cooked in pomegranate juice, et cetera. Up until the
Speaker 1: nineteen seventies, the majority of America's pistachios came from abroad,
Speaker 1: most hailing from Iran. Zaloum's method of using his red
Speaker 1: dye to make his nuts stand out eventually became the
Speaker 1: identifying mark of Middle Eastern pistachios. Then, in nineteen seventy
Speaker 1: nine came the Iranian hostage crisis, in which fifty two
Speaker 1: American diplomats and citizens were held hostage in Iran for
Speaker 1: four hundred and forty four days. Tensions between the two
Speaker 1: nations were extremely high during this time, deeply affecting how
Speaker 1: the United States viewed Iran and also undermining Jimmy Carter's
Speaker 1: conduct of foreign policy. Carter did what any president in
Speaker 1: a tight spot would do and imposed a number of
Speaker 1: sanctions on Iran just after the crisis began. Carter began
Speaker 1: by cutting off sales of Iranian oil and freeing all
Speaker 1: Iranian assets. On April seven, frustrated by the ineffectual outcome
Speaker 1: of the sanctions, Carter announced he would be taking drastic
Speaker 1: measures by cutting off diplomatic ties with Iran and embargoing
Speaker 1: all imports from the Middle Eastern country. His embargo against
Speaker 1: Iranian imports resulted in what was essentially an embargo on
Speaker 1: the area's vibrant red pistachios, leaving the fingers of pistachio
Speaker 1: loving Americans everywhere their normal hue. So where do America's
Speaker 1: pastachios come from? Now? California grows about of pustachio sold
Speaker 1: in the US using an automated pro says that ensures
Speaker 1: little to no colorful imperfections on the shell. California produced
Speaker 1: around four point five million pounds of pistachios in seven,
Speaker 1: a number that grew by twenty times only twenty years later.
Speaker 1: Now California is home to of the nation's pistachio orchards,
Speaker 1: making it at three point six billion dollar industry. Coming
Speaker 1: in second and third are Arizona and New Mexico, with
Speaker 1: an economic impact of thirteen million and three point one million, respectively.
Speaker 1: These nuts are all their natural green, but relics of
Speaker 1: red pistachios do still exist, for example, in a scene
Speaker 1: in the film The Naked Gun in which the character's
Speaker 1: mouths are dyed red by eating nuts, and in some
Speaker 1: people's nostalgic memories. Today's episode was written by Jeremy Glass
Speaker 1: and produced by Tyler Clang. For more on this and
Speaker 1: lots of other colorful topics, visit how stuff works dot com.
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