Growing Pine nuts in Marlborough

  • 12 October 2023
  • Celia Hay

Not far from Lake Grassmere, on Marlborough's eastern coast, you can find hundreds of hectares of pine trees.  These trees, however are not Pinus radiata, a tree that we are very familiar with in New Zealand, but Pinus pinea or Stone pine, the source premium pine nuts and favoured ingredient of pesto.

Pinoli, the 2023 Supreme Champion at the Outstanding NZ Food Producer Awards has been growing Pinus pinea since 1998. Owned by Andy and Barb Wiltshire and general manager, Lee Paterson, they first planted the Wairau Valley Hillesden block, beyond Renwick and surrounded by vineyards, in 1998. In 2011, Pinoli started to plant near  Cape Campbell. They call this the Windbreaker Plantation.

I met Lee Paterson here, on a magnficient Marlborough day with glimpses of snow-covered Mount Tapuae-o-Uenuku to the south.

Read Celia's blog here.

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