Harvesting Almonds
I hope you all had a joyous and safe Thanksgiving weekend. Over the next few days, I will share some of my holiday memories from our family trip to Dubai - you can see several snapshots on my Instagram page @MarthaStewart48. I will also post various Thanksgiving Day photos from company employees - I always love to see how everyone celebrates this special occasion.
But first, I wanted to share a few images from one of our last major harvests of the season - the almonds. In previous years, my trees only produced small amounts of almonds, but over the last couple of years, they have been extremely productive. In early autumn, there were hundreds of grayish-green drupes hanging from the tree branches and scattered on the ground below. It was very exciting.
Enjoy.
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- I have two almond trees at my farm – both on one side of my main greenhouse. They thrive in mild, wet winters, and hot, dry summers in full sun. I am very fortunate these trees are doing so well in this area.
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- Almond trees are compact, ranging from 15 to 30-feet tall. They are deciduous and grow white to pale pink flowers in early spring. Almonds develop inside small fruits – like the pits of peaches.
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- The leaves of the almond tree are long – about three to five inches. The almond fruit is leathery, and usually referred to as the hull or husk of the seed.
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- The almond fruit measures about two inches long, and is called a drupe. The outer covering, or exocarp, is a thick, grayish green coat, with a downy feel to it. This fruit is not edible.
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- Almonds are harvested in the early fall. Many almonds fall from the trees on their own, so Ryan rakes as many as he can from the ground.
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- There are many, many to collect.
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- These trees did not produce many fruits for several years, but now they produce lots and lots of almonds.
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- All the almonds are placed into plastic crates.
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- And then one by one, their outer husks are removed.
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- Usually there is one seed, or what we know as the almond, in each drupe, but occasionally, there will be two.
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- Ryan splits the fruit in half.
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- Some of the drupes will open on their own, exposing the shells, but most will have to be opened manually.
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- The fruits are pretty soft, so removing it is not difficult to do.
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- The world produces more than two million tons of almonds per year. In the US, almond production is concentrated in California, with almonds being the state’s third-leading agricultural product.
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- The longer the hulls remain on the nuts after harvest, the more the nut quality deteriorates, so be sure to have a lot of time to hull almonds when you harvest.
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- This is a time consuming process, but look at all the almonds we will have.
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- Blackie watches nearby – he looks quite interested.
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- Here is an opened drupe showing the outer hull, and the hard shell containing the almond seed inside.
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- Shelling almonds refers to removing the hull to reveal the seed, so the almond that is eaten is inside this seed.
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- Tree branches are also tapped or shaken to encourage the nuts to fall. Ryan gives this tree a little shake.
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- If you look closely, you can see a few almonds falling from the branches.
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- After more almonds fall, Ryan continues to shell them.
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- And slowly the plastic crates fill with almonds.
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- In the end, this crate was filled nearly to the top.
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- The almond is a very nutritiously dense food. It’s a rich source of vitamins B and E, and is high in calcium, iron, and riboflavin. They are also a rich source of oil. It is high in monounsaturated fats, which is known to lower the risk of heart disease, and lower cholesterol.
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- Once all the almond seeds are removed from the fruits, they’re spread out and left to dry. These must be dried to reduce the moisture in the kernels. If they aren’t dried properly, they will likely produce mold, taste rancid and not store well.
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- After a week, these should rattle when shaken. The nut inside should also be crisp and brittle. Rubbery kernels need to be dried some more. Before storing almonds, they can be placed in the freezer for a couple of days to to kill any possible storage pests.
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