Outdoor Wednesday / Almond Harvest~

Yay! Harvest is over for another year, and I thought

I would show you some of the photos that I've taken over the years of the scenery around our almond orchard.

I also thought, I would tell you and show you a little bit about the harvesting process too!

For those of you who could care less about almond harvesting, well...

I hope you'll at least enjoy my photos!

(you can click to enlarge all photos)

The photo above and below I took of our neighbors really large pond, with their barn and the Sutter Buttes in the background.

For those of you who have never heard of the Sutter Buttes, they are the worlds smallest mountain range.

Just a little bit of trivia for ya right there!

This photo above I took from inside our orchard with our neighbors goat pen in the background.

This photo above is the view across the street.


These photos were taken in the springtime when everything is green and beautiful!

I guess this isn't really a seasonally correct time to show these but oh well... maybe my next post will be about Autumn!!


This photo above is of the view from the back of the orchard, beautiful and unspoiled.
Unfortunately someone bought the property since this photo and turned this gorgeous view into their equipment yard. Can you believe it!

Well at least now they are planting an olive grove there that hopefully when it's mature will camouflage all their machinery!

Here's hubby!


This photo was taken at sunset... my favorite time of day. So many beautiful shadows accenting the landscape.


Hubby here again, with bee hives in the background at spring bloom.
If you want an almond crop you have to bring in bees for pollination.

Unfortunately, In resent years prices for bees have quadrupled,
due to bee colony collapse disorder.

Another photo of the bloom.

Pedals are falling, it kinda looks like pink snow!
The almond trees usually bloom in February,

then by August the nuts are mature and it's time for harvest.

Ha ha! How many times have you read the words

"nuts" and "mature" in the same sentence!

Oh my goodness, I just crack myself up!!

Speaking of cracking... when the hulls of the nut crack open,

you're about 3 weeks or so from starting harvest.

We grow 4 different varieties of almonds. Approximately 2/3 of our orchard are Non-pariels, they are they earliest variety to be harvested.

The others are ready about two weeks later.

Non-pariels they are also a premium nut that sell for a higher price than other varieties.

The first stage of harvest is to shake the almonds off the tree with a tree shaker.

Watch here in this You Tube video I found.

After the nuts have dried on the ground for a few days, the next step is to sweep the nuts into a pile down the center of each row, as shown in the next video.

Then the nuts are ready to be picked up with the harvester, or what we call the "pick up machine".

Here's a link below to another video that I couldn't embed here.

I really liked it because it has some cool music and it also shows the harvester picking up the almonds from the center rows.

You Tube-Almond Harvest

*****
So, there you have it in a nutshell!!

hehehe!

Omgosh, there I go crackin myself up again!

Okay everyone, class is over now and you may be excused!!

Only there is a short little assignment...

Just write a brief comment and hit the publish button

and you're guaranteed a "A"!!! :)

Then head over to Susan's at

A Southern Daydreamer

and visit her and the other Outdoor Wednesday participants!

Thanks for stopping by for a peek!

Your Friendly (nutty?) California Almond Grower!

Sherri:)