Posted on : September 20th, 2017
We’ve been in almond harvesting season here in Chico, CA and that means it’s time to shake those nuts from the tree! At harvest time, we use mechanical shakers to get the nuts to fall. And you better stay out of the way when it happens because as you can see in the above video made several years ago for CSU Chico College of Agriculture’s CA Orchard Production and Management course, when those nuts rain down, it rains hard!
In fact, in Chico the local folklore claims that the almonds get the “l” knocked out of them and that is why we say “ah-mond” (with the “ah” pronounced like “Sam”) instead of “all-mond” as it is pronounced in most other places in the country.
When the almonds have been shaken off the trees they are “swept” and blown by a “Sweeper” machine into wind-rows in the center of each almond row. After drying the appropriate amount of time, they are picked up by a “Pick-up machine” and dumped into a vehicle we call the “Bank-out.” The almonds travel up an elevator to a set of “Doubles” and are trucked to the Huller/Sheller. The Huller/Sheller is a plant with a series of gravitation tables and high pressure air that separates the almonds from the hull and shell. The sticks and dirt clots are also separated out here. The almonds are placed in 4ft.x 4ft. bins that typically hold 2,000 lbs. They are then picked up by Maisie Jane’s who does the final picking/sorting of the almonds, the pasteurization, and the final packing. They are stored in refrigeration until we do the further processing of them for a wide variety of almond products such as our yummy almond butter. It’s an exciting time!
Maisie Jane’s California Sunshine Products, Inc. was founded on strong beliefs and passion for offering unique, flavorful, top-quality, nut products. We strongly believe in earth-friendly practices that start on our family-owned and operated orchards. We use organic farming practices and continue in the process by using all-natural ingredients with no preservatives or GMOs. We believe in honest, friendly and helpful customer relations at all levels. We take pride in every task, every day, with every person.
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