The Tradition and Business of Picking and Selling Piñon Nuts in New Mexico | Eater

"Founded more than 50 years ago by a trader raised in a four‑generation family of Native American art dealers, this Highway 602 gallery combines a traditional trading-post atmosphere — murals of prominent Navajo community members and glass cases of jewelry and crafts — with a long-running piñon brokerage. The owner treats buying and selling tiny, dark piñon nuts as both passion and business: he purchases by the pound from local pickers, washes and cures the nuts (using a closely guarded method), stores them in ventilated space, and moves most volume to national wholesale buyers while retailing only a small share in the shop. Once a million‑pound operation in the 1960s, the piñon trade has shrunk dramatically due to bark beetles and environmental change, and typical margins are thin (around 10 percent, with 20–25 percent a rare win), yet the seasonal income remains vital to many local Navajo and Pueblo families. Located just north of the Checkerboard, the gallery also sits amid piñon‑dotted high‑desert vistas that feed the regional harvesting tradition the business both depends on and supports." - Karen Fischer