I love the pine cones. When we lived in Hawaii, my dad asked me what he could bring that we couldn't get there. I told him to bring some pine cones from MS. When I opened the bag, they were all tight ones. I was a little disappointed and not sure what to do with them. I put one in the microwave and it steamed open. I then opened all of them and they looked like the pine cones I remembered. (I still have them).