Be careful grabbing your nuts.

If you’ve ever wondered why pine nuts are so expensive this story might make you think twice about whining while buying your pesto ingredients. A pine nut farmer in China is lucky to be alive after a mishap led to him flying 200 miles, out of control, in a tiny balloon basket.

The farmer, who is only being identified as Hu, was harvesting pine nuts in Heilongjiang province when the hydrogen balloon keeping him aloft came untethered and he began floating away. Another farmer working with Hu jumped from the basket before it rose too high, but Hu wasn’t so lucky.

The man floated for the rest of the day, and overnight before rescuers on the ground were able to contact the man and instruct him how he could slowly release the hydrogen in the balloon — allowing him to slowly descend. It’s been reported that Hu is fine, other than some lower back pain, believed to be a product of standing for hours on end in the tiny nut-harvesting basket.

Believe it or not, this is still the safest, most reliable way to harvest pine nuts. The best nuts can only be obtained from pine cones which are still attached to extremely tall pine trees in mountainous regions — and that has made harvesting them extremely difficult. In the past farmers would scale the trees themselves, using ropes and spiked boots — but this was extremely dangerous. Dozens of farmers a year would plummet to their deaths, a product of bad purchase with their boots, breaking branches, or a combination of both.

Lifts, or cherry pickers are either too expensive for most farmers — or impractical to navigate the mountain terrain. A 2017 story on pine nut harvesting even explained a plan to use monkeys to retrieve the nuts, but that didn’t work either.

“They even tried training monkeys to pick the pinecones, but found that the pine trees’ sap would stick to the monkeys’ fur, and the animals couldn’t be coaxed to climb the trees a second time.”

This left farmers with one idea: Small balloons filled with hydrogen. If properly tethered to the ground it would allow them to reach the top of the trees and work in relative safety, before being pulled back to the ground by a spotter. It’s still an extremely dangerous process and workers continue to die while using the balloon rigs, but it’s the best answer society has to ensure the pine nut industry continues.

Luckily for Hu, modern technology eventually saved him. The man drifted into an area of cell phone coverage where rescue teams were able to call him and give instructions on how to get back to the ground.

I’ll never complain about $20 for a tiny jar again.

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