Fannie S. Spitz

[3] She traveled to study nut processing methods, and spent months as an apprentice in a machine shop,[4] before she built a prototype of her original design in her basement workshop.

[6] She also sold pine nuts from her Albuquerque farm, and promoted their nutritional value and culinary possibilities.

[9] The Albuquerque Journal declared her "the greatest known authority on the pinon nut and its possibilities".

[11] Fannie D. Schutz married Berthold V. Spitz, a Jewish immigrant from Bohemia, in 1893.

[12] The couple were among the founders of Congregation Albert, a synagogue still active in Albuquerque, New Mexico.