Cluster of green pistachios. Avenue 7 ½, west of Eastside Bypass, Madera County.

8/17/2006

Peter Goin digital photograph archive : Colors of California agriculture

East Olive to Orange Cove, August 2006

BANC PIC 2018.109--DIG :ag00161

Image

1 photograph : digital, TIFF

The Bancroft Library

Pg. 22, DeLORME Southern & Central California Atlas & Gazetteer. August 17, 2006. Map locator #27. “The birth of the California industry followed shortly. It was in 1929 that American plant scientist William E. Whitehouse spent a lonely six months in Persia (modern day Iran), collecting seed and sifting through piles of produce to find the most distinctive pistachios. He returned carrying a burlap sack 20 pounds heavy with seed. The next year, experimental plantings were established in California, the perfect host with its desert-like climate. With pistachio trees requiring a full seven to ten years to mature, it was 1950 before one standout tree emerged. The variety was named Kerman for the famous carpet-making city near which the seed was collected. Scientists then strengthened the Kerman by budding it to heartier rootstock varieties.” From web site of California Pistachio Commission, http://www.pistachios.org/History/History.asp.

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