Skip to main content

Picking up almonds

Almond harvest has quite a few steps and processes involved. I showed a glimpse into shaking and sweeping almonds on our farm. Next up, is picking up the almonds.

Almond harvest has been in full swing for the past six plus weeks across California's Central Valley. We just finished shaking over the weekend. Now it is the final push to sweep, condition and pick up all our almonds over the next two weeks. Crossing my fingers we finish by the end of next week. It is a long process to get all varieties off the trees and on their way to the hullers.

There are so many moving parts and equipment involved it is so much easier to just show you. Telling you would take too many words and jargon that no one understands. Since most of you probably wont be able to come out the farm to take a look first hand, check out this video I made to show you all about picking up almonds out of the field and getting them on their way to the huller.  




Until Next  Time,
Almond Girl Jenny
Post a Comment

Reminders for raising baby chicks


Growing up, we always had lots of animals around. Not in the zoo or crazy cat lady sense. My sister and I both did 4-H and FFA, and my Dad loved animals around because he grew up the same way. 

I have fond memories of cuddling in the pen with my market lambs and the county fair. My father also taught us the life cycle of animals, and I remember watching my first sheep be harvested. It was an educational time where I was able to learn firsthand from our local butcher. Raising animals was a lesson of responsibility and work ethic.  Sure we bonded with our animals, but we also depended on our animals for our food. We didn't buy meat from the grocery store growing up, we grew our meat. Lamb chops is still one of my childhood comfort foods. yum!

I also have very specific memories of having chickens during my childhood. I remember going in to collect eggs and having to wear rubber boots, because the roosters would always chase me and peck at my feet. Even after being chased by roosters for years, I somehow still loved having chickens and collecting fresh eggs. It was something I always knew I wanted to do when we finally got a house in the country. Sheep, pigs and lots of chickens is my ideal farm animal experience I have had pictured for our new farmhouse.

My farmer didn’t grow up the same way. His first animal EVER, was our Labrador Retriever I bought him for our first wedding anniversary gift.  Needless to say, he wasn’t so welcoming to my farm animal fairy tale. But of course, I went out the week of Easter and bought six baby chicks anyways. He wasn’t too happy about it but I figured it was just chickens. I wasn’t coming home with a cow! How mad could he get?

It had been a good 15-20 years since I had chickens, so I needed a refresher in raising chickens. I got a little emotional when I couldn't call my Dad with my laundry list of questions I had of things I couldn't remember. After some phone calls to my sister, some great Instagram followers and advice from my local feed store, it was all coming back to me. 
Our baby chicks just a week old in their cardboard box

Raising chickens was like riding a bike, once you’ve done it once you can figure it out again. So, for those of you needing a few reminders, here are my helpful hints for starting out with baby chicks:


  1.  Get a big tub. And when I mean big, what worked best for us was a 100 gallon Rubbermaid water trough tubs they use for large animals. I quickly realized how fast those chickens outgrow the cardboard boxes. Those cardboard moving boxes aren’t going to work for more than two chickens for about a week, two weeks max. We tried multiple boxes and had some great suggestions from followers, but the 100 gallon tub worked great for us.
    Funny story here. I went looking all over town at about 5 different stores looking for a tub. I was trying to describe to my husband what I wanted and he kept saying rubbermaid tubs. In my head he was telling me to get a plastic storage tub like you hold your Christmas decorations in. I finally found this tub at Tractor Supply, and my husband tells me he has the exact tub at the farm storing parts... smh! 
  2. Check their food and water TWICE a day. Chickens are messy. They poop in their food and they won’t eat their food because there is poop in it. They aren’t smart either. Be sure to clean it out twice a day so they can eat and drink normally. The water is always getting bedding in it, so be sure to keep it clean too. 
  3.  Keep them warm. We kept our chicks in the shop for 5 weeks to keep them out of the cold and keep them inside where it was warmer. Heat lamps are a must. Those little chicks get cold and they need to stay nice and warm to stay healthy and alive. I kept the heat lamp on them for a good 3 weeks. I also used a red heat lamp. I bought chickens of different colors and breeds. To keep them from noticing they are different colors and pecking at each other, the red lamp helps them to not see color. (As a side not, if you live where it gets super cold you may want to do extra heat methods. A follower told me they put hot water in a water bottle and place it in the box with them. Just make sure those little chicks can't burn themselves from excess heat.) 
  4. Change their bedding regularly. I am going to say it again, chickens are messy! They spill water in their bedding, poop everyday and just make a mess. The first week I cleaned that box every day. They can get sick more easily and need to stay clean. Then I started every other day and every third day, as they got bigger and made less of the mess. But keeping their bedding dry and clean will help them stay healthy and strong. 
  5. Set up a chicken coop ahead of time. This is a necessity we didn't follow as well as we should have. Like I said before, my farmer wasn't a big fan of the chickens so they might have been in the tub for six weeks, a week or so more than they probably should have been. Once those baby chicks turn into teenager chicks and get their big girl feathers they can go outside. This is generally when the chicks are about 4-6 weeks old. Depending on how old the chicks are when you buy them, this could leave you with little time to set up the coop. 

teenager chicks outgrowing their tub
 Be prepared. Keep those chickens happy and healthy. Utilize your feed store. They have people that can help you out and get you all the supplies you need.
But also, have fun! Chickens are a great first animal as an introduction to farm life. But also an animal you may be able to have in your backyard in town. And they give back. Keep them happy and healthy and they reward you with delicious farm fresh eggs!

Until Next Time,
Almond Girl Jenny








Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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

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

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