From Dubai chocolate to lattes, pistachios are having a moment. Of course, the nut itself has been cultivated for thousands of years in Persia, modern day Iran, where pistachios are still the country’s number one commodity crop. But the United States has only grown them commercially for 50 years. The U.S. now produces the lion’s share of pistachios globally — despite their relative newness for American farmers.
The tagline on a bag of salt and pepper pistachios in my cabinet reads, “300-year-old recipe — reborn in California.” That short phrase aptly describes how one U.S. state overtook hundreds of years of Iranian market power in a matter of decades.
