My household has really become enamored of nuts ever since we started writing our Drive I-95: Exit by Exit Info, Maps, History and Trivia book. Down the road a piece in Virginia and North and South Carolina there are family businesses selling peanuts and pecans freshly roasted in classic and also the most original flavors (wasabe peanuts, hot onion and garlic pistachios, for example). We can no longer live without butter toasted pecans in our salads or for snacks, and we have to order them online between our trips (www.goodearthpeanuts.com).

This led me to thinking about where I could find fresh nuts right here at home. We are lucky to have a handful of wholesalers who open their doors to the public as well. The variety of nuts and other stuff they sell by the pound is astonishing. Just walking through the stores is fun, since some still show their wares in barrels (when was the last time you bought that way?).

Since it is all sold by the pound, this presents an easy opportunity to buy tiny tastes of things and not have to invest a pile of money just to see if you or your family might like them. With the holiday season on the horizon, it would be a good time to stock up on all the ingredients you will need for your baking, or perhaps plan to buy some of the yummy new treats to serve as nibbles for your guests.

Basse, 9360 Charles de Latour St at Chabanel St. Phone: 514-387-8828. Hours: Monday to Wednesday and Saturday 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Thursday and Friday 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., Sunday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. This Mid-eastern family business, involving five brothers, has been oil-roasting and dry-roasting all kinds of nuts for the past fifteen years. You can choose from amongst six kinds of pistachios, almonds come in tamari, barbeque or candied, and there’s pumpkin seeds, hazelnuts and caramel pecans. Other interesting goodies abound: roasted chick peas, corn nuts, double roasted hot peppers, dried kiwi, peanut/rice crackers and roasted peas. Some mid-eastern groceries are stocked, like blossom or rose water, bags or jars of zaatar, bitter orange jam, stuffed zucchini and, if you need them, gallon jars of hot peppers. Other location: 4555 Autoroute 440 West (at the plant 450-781-1255).

Cananut,1415 Mazurette St. at De l’Acadie Blvd. Phone: 514-388-8003. Hours: Monday to Wednesday 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., Thursday and Friday 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., Saturday 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., Sunday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. With an astounding sixty barrels of nuts, twenty-four of beans, ten kinds of rice and eight of lentils, you can stock up on all sorts of staples here. Some exotic foods here are worth investigating: date paste, dried mango, papaya cubes, barbequed corn, wasabi peanuts, bulgur and couscous. There’s a wall of teas (like hibiscus flower), jarred and canned imported foods and some wrapped candies. Other location: 4913 St. Jean Blvd. (514-624-2324).

Delinoix, 6768 Jarry St. East at Pascal Gagnon St. Phone: 514-324-4227. Hours: Monday to Wednesday 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., Thursday 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., Friday 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. (until Dec 31, Saturday 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.). This wholesaler will sell retail, so if you have a hankering for nuts, dried fruits (mango, cranberry, pear, kiwi, cantaloupe), a dozen trail mixes and lots of candies or crystallized ginger, the deals are here. In the nut department, cashews are $7.29 for 500 gr., pine nuts $6.99 for 250 gr., and then there are barbequed or maple syrup peanuts, smoked, chocolate (one with 70% chocolate on it) or yogurt almonds and macadamia nuts. Other interesting items are the dried tomatoes, rice crackers and dried peas. Sugar-free treats come in chocolate covered almonds or hard candies (coffee, strawberry, mint, etc.). Now you can buy some organic apricots, Thompson raisins, sesame sticks and flax seeds. www.delinoix.com