About ten years ago, I had to work at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. It's at an elevation of 7,500 feet, in a beautiful pine forest (that regularly had devastating fires). I was a couple of weeks too early for the pine nut harvest, but people were already making preparations. Apparently, it's a big social event, a good excuse for barbecues and beer drinking. I'm sorry I missed the experience.
Are pine nuts really nuts? Are they in the cones of trees? Which coniferous trees have edible "nuts"? What's involved in the harvesting process, and how do people know when the nuts are ripe?