Ric:
>Hey, gang,
>Been too busy lately to really go thru all the great material on this list,
>but happened to catch sight of the "raw pistachio" words flashing by...
>Plenty of genuinely raw pistachios down here in Southern California...some
>even organic.  Yes, you're safer if they're in the shells, but many growers
>still dry them in the sun...it's cheaper.  I, and some of my raw fooder
>friends, like to buy them at the farmer's markets while fresh, not dried,
>and still in the skins.  They're fabulously tasty...very easy to remove the
>skins, and, if kept in the reefer, they keep for months.  Outside, if not in
>the sun, however, they rot pretty fast (the skin goes bad).

I'll have to give them a try, Ric. Thanks for the tip!

A word about sun drying from the instincto perspective: Lore has it that
the heat generated in many instances of sun-drying can alter a food enough
that it's taste-change is less detectable. I have experimented (air dry and
sun dry half batches) with grapes, various fish fillets, and figs (in harsh
summer Peruvian sun, not dis-similar to southern CA sun) and note that the
sun dried raisons, fish and dried figs were all tastier than air-dried and
that the taste change was "confused" with the sun dried relative to air
dried. The confusion is that the taste is still good and "not-right" at the
same time. Such a confusion is easily experienced with most commercial
sun-dried raisons. The initially rich/wonderful flavor retains its
sweetness while a "biting dry mouth" tries to take over. It does
eventually, but one can "ignore it" for a time in preference to the
sweetness. With fish the difference is much less subtle. Wild seafoods have
a very abrupt and dramatic taste-change, but when sun-dried they take on a
smokey richness which holds on even though the "gaggingly putrid and
over-rich" taste-change tries to become pronounced. It, too, eventually
does, but by that time the fish has been overeaten and one feels unwell, as
opposed to the "high" of properly-consumed raw seafood.

I don't think sun-dried foods are all that troublesome to one's health, but
as there may be some fledgling instinctos lurking, I did want to say that
they can cause problems when eaten instinctively. All one needs to do, of
course, is to stop eating when there is _any_ change in flavor--ie not wiat
for them to taste unpleasant. Or better yet, eat until you don't want
anymore and see how you feel. (Come to think of it, this good/bad taste
also occurs with mixed raw honey, but not with comb honey. This holds even
for truely raw mixed honey.)

That said, I suspect that for pistachios in the shell, the shell shields
the edible nut from direct sunlight and it is more the lowering relative
humidity that dries the nut than direct radiation. (Those dang Santa Anna
winds not only almost burned us down but the single digit humidity has my
stash of cassia bone dry, seeds rattling even!) I am curious to taste them.

The skins on pistachios (and almonds, peanuts, etc.) are a drag and taste
funny very quickly. I'm glad to know the fresh pistachios are easily peeled.

Thanks again Ric for your posts (always nice to hear some first hand info
(Airola) in contrast to the usual here-say). You seem to be representative
of the few successful raw vegans, and your experience raising raw kids is
rare these days (or in any day I guess). Have you done any writing on your
experience with raw foods etc? I would be quite interested to know of it,
and I'm sure others on veg-raw would as well.

Cheers,
Kirt