Orandi name also associated with premium pistachios

Before his retirement, Ahmad Orandi, a native of Iran (the world's leading pistachio producer), invested in a California pistachio ranch with his two brothers. That was back in 1971.

Published Tuesday, November 30, 2004

Now residents of Eden Prairie near the Twin Cities, Ahmad and Ruth Orandi are owners of a ranch in California that produces some of the finest pistachios in the world. But success didn't just happen overnight. In the early 1970s, fewer than 600 acres of pistachios were cultivated in the United States. Ahmad and Ruth Orandi, while still living in Fergus Falls, became pioneers in the pistachio business. But Ahmad could rely on his family heritage in Iran, where several generations of the Orandi family grew pistachio nuts for literally hundreds of years. Today there are more than 120,000 acres of production in the United States. And getting into the marketing end of the pistachio business was Ahmad and Ruth Orandi's daughter, Margaret Orandi Houlton of Edina. Her story was recently chronicled by Minneapolis Star-Tribune writer John Reinan, whose brother Jay graduated with Houlton at Fergus High in 1982. "Houlton decided to reserve about 5,000 pounds of the best pistachio nuts," wrote Reinan, "which she is packaging as a high-end product for holiday gift-giving. She named the brand Orandi in honor of her parents." Fergus native Houlton takes orders through her Web site, www.orandipistachios.com. People in the Fergus Falls area, and elsewhere, can learn a lot about the Orandi family and the pistachio business by logging onto the Web site. In the link "About Orandi Pistachios" you learn that Margaret Orandi Houlton has been hard at work with the design and marketing of this special gourmet product. While standard pistachios are now widely marketed to the general public, the Web site states that "premium pistachios offered by Orandi Pistachios are for those who desire only the rarest and finest in gourmet flavors." The Web site also lists some of Orandi Pistachios' own recipes. They include spicy chocolate treats, apricot-pistachio rolled pork, spicy ginger salad, Roquefort pistachio triangles, sweet and sour meatballs, sherry cheese ball, pistachio-stuffed mushrooms, fish fillets in pineapple sauce, pistachio-stuffed baked apples, cinnamon meringues, and cherry bars. "The nuts are expensive to grow," said Houlton in the Star Tribune article. "Pistachio trees don't produce their first crop until seven years after planting, and even then bear fruit only in alternate years." She said it's still a limited commodity. "Not a lot of farmers can afford to wait seven years for the trees to produce. So what you have is a higher-end product that's just going to have to stay a higher-end product." But Houlton also sees that many people are using pistachios to create gifts, mainly for Christmas. And that's why she feels confident about competing on a small scale with larger sellers of gourmet gift baskets. Her approach seems to be working. And, in the meantime, the Orandi name in the Fergus Falls area will no longer be linked with just health care. It also will be synonymous with pistachios! Tom Hintgen is a resident of Fergus Falls. His column appears Mondays.

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