Home Grown Almonds Blog

Wow, it has been a busy week and a half!  Since my last post, when we knocked the almond trees, we’ve been working like mad in the orchard getting ready to actually harvest, pick up the nuts off the ground!
After knocking the nuts off the Nonpareil trees (every other row), the first thing I needed [...]

We’re just a couple days away from “knocking” the first variety of trees.  The nonpareil almonds are dried enough so we can shake them off the trees.  They will finish drying on the ground before we sweep them up and harvest them.
My boys have been helping me get the orchard ready for the shakers and [...]

I absolutely love this time of year, the almond hulls are splitting and exposing the shells inside allowing them to dry and harden.  They start taking on the nutty flavor that we all love so much, and have less of the “green” flavor as they dry out.

William came with me this morning when I went [...]

I just spent a week up in Oregon at Young Life’s Washington Family Ranch.  What an amazing and exhausting week with high schoolers!  Coming home to the farm is always good - I feel so at peace when I’m at home, in my orchard.  Taking a walk through the orchard, I found the Non-pareil almonds [...]

One morning last week, I was out changing the irrigation zones in the almond orchard, and three of my boys showed up, Briden (7) and Caleb (5) on their bikes, and William (3) on foot.  They love to race to see who can turn the most valves on/off for me, but the big boys let [...]