The Greek island of Aegina lives off its pistachio plantations. French farmer Henri-Paul Coulon, who has lived on the island for a long time, rubs his hands on this year’s great harvest.
AEGINA by Henri-Paul Coulon the August harvest in a pistachio nut farm reminds me of a landscape painting.
Coulon and his helpers use sticks to shake the pistachio crop from the trees. Machines are neither seen nor heard in the middle of nature.
The farm’s dogs are happily jumping on their feet. They sense the people’s joy, which intensifies the more pistachios are crunched on the tarps spread under the trees.
– The harvest now looks the best in fifteen, maybe twenty years, Coulon mumbles.
His eyes wander around the pistachio trees, of which there are four hundred on the organic farm.
Coulon, a Frenchman who has lived on the island of Aegina for 30 years, says that although the production is minimally mechanized, the salary costs run. There is a need for farm workers, because the bunches left loose during the harvest must be cleaned from the trees by hand in order to fight insects.
– Even so, we lose about 20 percent of the harvest to insects every year, Coulon laments.
Pistachio trees require 800 hours of cold per year
According to Coulon, trees have been cut down to make way for construction in recent years, but without the pistachio plantations, the construction would have exploded out of control. Aegina, located near Athens, is a popular holiday destination.
Coulon’s farm produces pistachios from 200 kilos to 1.5 tons per year.
Normally, one bad crop year has been followed by a better one.
In recent years, the rhythm has changed. Coulon’s farm has had a few bad years in a row.
To Coulon’s dismay, the island has been warmer in winter.
Except for last winter.
– It was cold and that’s why the harvest is good now. Pistachio trees need 800 hours of temperatures below seven degrees a year, Coulon explains.
A cold winter would be welcome this year as well. The energy crisis does not really affect Couloni’s state, as energy is mainly used only for roasting the pistachios in the oven at the end of the production process.
Changing the species would mean a change in quality
Climate warming is also a concern Marilena Giannouliawhich is responsible for organizing Aegina’s pistachio festival every fall.
He says that the islanders are looking for ways to deal with the climate crisis with the practitioners of science.
– The future must be anticipated, because the next harvest is always uncertain. Pistachios are preserved in warehouses at a suitable temperature, says Giannouli.
The threat of a pistachio shortage has brought up in Aegina the idea of switching to more heat-tolerant species from more southerly latitudes, for example the Tunisian pistachio.
Due to the expensive maintenance costs of the plantations, the alternative may be attractive, but according to Giannouli, the idea still does not seem to gain support on the island.
– A species from a different region would no longer have the same quality as the Aegina pistachio, which everyone knows and from which our confectioners conjure up delicacies, Giannouli thinks.
“Green gold” is real gold for Aegina
Henri-Paul Coulon and the thirty-year-old man who works on his farm are also firmly in favor of sticking to their own pistachio species Konstantin Hatzopoulos.
Hatzopoulos sees that Aegina’s pistachios are called “green gold” for a reason.
– We are becoming more and more aware that nuts are gold. The term does not only refer to securing Aegina’s economy, but generally to nurturing the character of the island, Hatzopoulos clarifies.
He considers it a privilege to be on the island collecting that gold.
When midday begins to break and the green gold is shaken from the trees, Coulon drives the pistachios collected in tarpaulins with a tractor to the next work station.
There, the machine removes the outer shell from the pistachios and the bad nuts are separated from the good ones.
At the end of the day, the green gold is moved to the roof to dry.
On the roof of his house, Coulon does another spot test: out of a hundred nuts, only one unopened pistachio is found. Last year the number was 20.
This is the most delicious moment of pistachio farming.
– The most satisfying thing is when the pistachios end up in sacks and it is confirmed that there is also income and not just expenses, laughs Coulon.
What thoughts did the story evoke? You can discuss the topic here until Wednesday 8 September 2022 at 11 pm.