Last Christmas my grocery store sold stone pine cones as a decorative odd thing to have on your table. Put it in a warm place, they said, and the cone will open up and there you will be able to harvest the pine kernels. Well, the cone was beautiful as it was, about 9

centimeters big (3.5 inches). We tried to “warm it up”, but nothing worked. So I decided to keep it in the southern window of our house. And yesterday I discovered it had opened up, the spring sun basking down on it. So beautiful, so magic. With the black pine kernels tucked inside each “leaf”. I cracked one open and tasted it – absolutely wonderful!