New DNA Map of the Pistachio Could Create Better Varieties
7 comments
·July 28, 2025AngryData
brudgers
For what it is worth, California mostly grows its pistachios in the San Joaquin Valley. There is a 40+ mile wide mountain range between the Central Valley and the Pacific.
California has a long coast and a lot of people but most of the coast is sparsely populated and ranching the only significant agriculture by the sea.
fmajid
The best pistachios in the world are grown in the volcanic soil of Bronte, in Sicily, Italy. Hopefully this research will help bring those characteristics to more commercial cultivars.
ggm
Pistachios need a shell less likely to infuriatingly not open when roasted. It's about 1 in 20 and should be more like 1 in 200.
Whatever the quality is in roasted-pistachio/salt which causes almost instant gratification-reward-repeat, it must be what CM Kornbluth/Fred Pohl was going on about in "the space merchants" (1952) and if they double it up we'll all die (happy, satiated and with loads of yummy zinc and magnesium), of high blood pressure.
I just can't eat one. I'm not sure what the magnitude of the power of ten is but I know it's north of "a normal person's portion"
ralferoo
> I just can't eat one. I'm not sure what the magnitude of the power of ten is but I know it's north of "a normal person's portion"
After about 300g, my tongue swells a bit and I start to wonder if I'm actually allergic to them [0] after all. Smaller quantities seem fine though.
[0] I know it's not really the nut that people are allergic too, but some fungus that grows on pistachios and cashews.
jasinjames
wait, what fungus? I am allergic "to" exactly those two nuts but can't find mention of this online.
ralferoo
Hmmm, interesting. I've just searched now, and it seems I can't either so maybe I was totally mistaken, but I'm sure I remember reading this a few months ago when I was googling pistachio allergies when my tongue first felt slightly swollen (I've eaten pistachios for years before, and continue to do so, so it's obviously not a severe allergy).
Apparently, from what I read today, those two are caused by sharing a similar protein, and nothing at all to do with a fungus. It did say that both are susceptible to the aflatoxin fungus, but that apparently can contaminate lots of other things and if it's detected, the affected nuts, and sometimes even the whole batch, are destroyed. So, I guess it's not that after all, and I'm kind of at a loss as to what it was I remember reading from before.
Sorry for leading you down a dead end.
BTW what I also read today said there are other things that cross-react with cashew and pistachio, such as pink peppercorns, so if you're allergic to the nuts, you might want to check what else might affect you.
Nice, pistachios is a great plant for usage in arid areas where other crops would either struggle or require wasteful levels of water. Not only do pistachios require a lot less water than other plants, but it can also utilize slightly brackish/saline water, which makes watering them in places like California and other coastal areas potentially far cheaper and easier without needing completely fresh water.