Skip to main content

Perspective

Walking into a situation where you know you are most likely the outsider, the one with the differing opinion, is not easy. It is something I am not very good at. But in all honesty, these situations can often times be the most rewarding. Putting yourself out there is vulnerable. Something that is not comfortable. There is a reason it is called stepping outside your comfort zone, because it is not comfy. That comfort zone can often times hold you back. Can keep you from experiencing some pretty awesome things.

As an agriculture advocate and 4th generation California farmer, I find myself at conferences and workshops quite frequently. Most of the time, they are sponsored or put on by agriculture organizations or support businesses. I attend with the objective to learn more about my industry and ways to better our business or my leadership skills.

But what perspective is that giving us? I am learning more about my industry but through the lens of like minded people. What if we started to…
Post a Comment

Almond Huller & Sheller

 Our almond huller is running in full swing, so I thought I would go and check it out! We belong to a cooperative huller, meaning the farmers who use its services own an interest in the huller.  A select few farmers who are members of the cooperative are also elected on the board of directors. Most of the hullers in our southern Central Valley region of California are cooperatives. We also have a few large corporations and small growers in our region that operate private hullers as well.

The huller has received over half of all almonds that it will this year, but some have to wait in stock piles to be run at a later date. When the farmer is done harvesting and picking up the almonds from the field, they haul them to the huller in semi truck trailers. When the trucks arrive, the almonds are weighed and either sent to be processed or stock piled until the huller can run them. They fumigate and tarp the stock piles to keep the almonds safe from any insects or rain that may hurt the almonds  while they are waiting to be hulled and shelled.
Stock piles waiting to be hulled and shelled
Semi from the field dumping almonds to be hulled


When it's time to run the almonds through the huller, the almonds are dumped into a giant pit to remove any excess sticks and foreign material. Once the almonds are separated, they are run through a series of shaking trays and rollers that remove the outer layer called the hull.
At our huller, the almonds can either go to further processing to remove the shell or can be left in-shell. In-shell is a newer marketing trend in which some of the foreign countries that buy the almonds will then use their own labor to remove the shell, providing more jobs in their own country.  The second option is removing the shell by cracking it and separating out the almond meat. This may lead to mechanical defects on the softer almond varieties. These almonds with defects are separated and sold as hash.

 
Almonds to be cleaned from foreign material

Sticks separated from almonds

Shaking belt
Almonds being sorted for defects
Trays carrying the almonds to be shelled
Finished almonds!
 Once the final almonds are separated and the hull and shell is removed, they are poured into wooden bins to be transported to further processing. At the processor, they will be pasteurized for human consumption as required by USDA and further packaged to be sold in the many different forms we find them in the grocery store.

 Until Next Time,
Almond Girl 
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Almond by-products

When people think of almond uses they tend to just think of using the almond meat. Almonds have multiple by-products actually. When almonds are processed at the huller the almond meat is separated from the hull and shell. The hulls, shells and hash are also sold and used.

Almond hulls are the green out most layer of the almond while on the tree. The hull is what splits and starts the countdown to harvest. Once the almond has dried in the field, the hull also dries and begins to separate from the almond. At the huller, they remove the hulls and stock pile them until sold. Almond hulls are sold for animal feed, most commonly dairy feed. The hulls actually add nutrition to the animals diet and aid in healthy milk production. Growing up on my family's farm, we used the hulls to feed our breeding sheep. It was cheaper than grain, helped to add nutrition to the animal diet and while filled them up faster.

Almond shells are the hard layer between the hull and the almond meat. …
Post a Comment
Read more

Almond varieties

Did you know there are over 30 different varieties of almonds grown commercially?! All have their own unique purpose, size, and shape. Most almond farmers, have multiple varieties in the same orchard, the most popular being nonpareil. Nonpareil is the prettiest almond, most widely produced and comes with the biggest return back to the grower. But we can't all farm nonpareils, they need to be pollinated somehow. Almonds typically need at least two varieties in an orchard because the almond flower cannot pollinate itself like other fruit trees can. We learned about that with the almond bloom and bee blog!! So we have pollinator varieties that complement other varieties and offer their own unique purpose. I am going to outline a few of the more widely grown varieties for you, but feel free to check out The Almond Board of California's full guide.


Nonpareil has the most uses and purposes of any other nut. It can be used in raw form, blanched, processed or anything you …
1 comment
Read more

Modern Agriculture

What is Modern Agriculture?
Modern agriculture could be a scientist in a lab creating the newest impossible non-meat hamburger. Modern agriculture could mean the development of GMO seeds to decrease pesticide use. Modern agriculture could be turning on your irrigation system from an app on your computer. Modern agriculture could just mean the use of GPS in tractors, or maybe just the use of a tractor on a farm. Modern agriculture could mean something different to you depending on how you look at agriculture.






Modern agriculture is essentially developing practices that help farmers increase efficiency and reduce the amount of resources to meet the world's needs. But depending on your interpretation of the term you could already have created your opinion of modern agriculture. 2% of the population is involved in agriculture but 100% of the population has opinions.
That's the situation we face today, consumers tend to develop their own opinions of modern agriculture without unders…
Post a Comment
Read more