Pinède de Bkassine

Bkassine holds the largest pine forest in the Levant, and its stone pines have paid for village weddings and school years for centuries. The cooperative's members climb, gather and sun-dry the cones, then crack the nuts by hand through the winter.

A kilo of Lebanese pine nuts is a day of work, which is why the price is what it is — and why the cooperative publishes what its members earn. Nothing here is bulk-imported and re-bagged; every lot traces to the forest parcel and the season.