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
Comments
Post a Comment