Home Grown Almonds Blog

I’ve been busy removing trees that have died recently. It isn’t fun work, but at least we get firewood for next winter. And any branches that still have some leaves or nuts left on them we feed to Rebecca’s milk goats - they love the treat!
Quite a few of the trees are getting diseases, some [...]

Preparation for harvest starts early.  Weed management is one of the keys to a successful harvest.  This year is a little unusual because of the water shortage, but today I mowed the orchard to chop up the dead weeds.  This helps speed the decopmosition of the organic matter and minimizes interference with the harvest equipment.  [...]

Resident Robin

Mourning Dove Nest

Things are starting to heat up here in the Central Valley of California.  The hot weather is great for the developing almonds.  The trees soak up the sunshine as photosynthesis is in full swing.  It’s really such a peaceful time in the orchard.
With water flowing to the trees, the almonds grow and [...]

This is proving to be a challenging year due to severe irrigation water restrictions.  We are irrigating from our well due to the limitied availability and expense of water from the local irrigation district and the Department of the Interior.
The almonds are growing despite the dry conditions, and we’re working extra hard to make sure [...]

Today is tax day in the United States.  It’s the perfect reason to eat lots of almonds.