Originally published at: Alamogordo, New Mexico is home to a 30-foot-tall pistachio | Boing Boing
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If this doesn’t put Alamogordo on the map I don’t know what will.
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Enough “®” symbols there?
Sheesh!®
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Green pistachio and the white sands, the two prevailing colors of Alamogordo?
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I don’t remember the pistachios of Alamogordo but I do remember the rattlesnakes washing down the streets after mountain rains.
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If history serves me they had a little thing in July 1945 that was of note. Which in turn caused a giant ant infestation in 1954. 
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Honestly, Alamogordo is one of the best travel destinations in New Mexico. Considering its small size, they have a huge number of interesting things to do. In addition to the pistachio and White Sands, there’s also a nice zoo, a toy train depot, and the New Mexico Museum of Space History/International Space Hall of Fame. And it’s a relatively short drive up into the mountains and Lincoln National Forest.
No, I don’t live there, I nearly never get to go there, I just think it’s cool how much stuff they have. 
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One has to consider the size of the missile range - Trinity was actually far closer to Socorro near the NW corner of the range. Almost opposite Alamogordo’s location.
If you care to visit the Trinity site it’s open the first Saturday of April and October. No visits in the summer as that region is the “Jornada del Muerto”, or “Journey of Death” owing to it’s climate (not the missiles/bombs).
Trinity’s a “once and done” visit. It’s a little underwhelming to be honest. Far more awe inspiring is the Nevada National Security Site (nee the Nevada Test Site) - public tours there are available but it’s a tough ticket to get.
I need to learn of these giant ants. We don’t cover those at the Los Alamos Historical Society museum… 
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As museums concerning the development of the A-bomb go, the tour of Oak Ridge Labs in TN is one of the best.
(My parents were both HS teachers, they took me to some eclectic Science and History related museums growing up)
Here is the trailer and behind the scenes for the “documentary” about them.
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Ya know, in 26y in the nuclear enterprise I’ve been to probably every site but Oak Ridge.
Def need to keep OR-TN that on the “need to visit” list - after all there and Hanford were where the true heavy lifting in the Manhattan Project. Los Alamos got the management and the cone heads…
THEM! sounds like a winner for that last day of work before the Christmas shutdown. Usually we’d pot-luck with Dr Strangelove on in the conference room and clean offices. Anything sensitive or dangerous was strictly off limits.
Cheers!
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Wait… Why isn’t it red?
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The disappearance of red-colored pistachios is a direct result of the exponential increase in homegrown pistachios and the limit on pistachio imports from the Middle East. When the U.S. was importing pistachios, the nut shells would often be splotchy in color, the Kitchn explains. The shells got stained from traditional harvesting methods in which the nuts weren’t immediately hulled and washed. Since the appearance of these stains was unappetizing, pistachio producers in the Middle East took to dying the shells bright red to hide the stains, Richard Matoian, Executive Director of the American Pistachio Growers told HuffPost Taste. A few American producers followed suit because the market was used to seeing pistachios with a bright red hue, Matoian said. But all that’s over now.
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