Almonds are kind of a big deal in California. In fact, nearly all of the almonds sold in the U.S. are grown in California, and the state supplies 80% of the world’s production of almonds. The California almond crop has almost quadrupled in the past 20 years, with 1.11 million acres in production, according to the Modesto-based California Almond Board.
I was fortunate enough to get a tour of the Mariani Nut Co. harvest near the company’s headquarters in Winters, Calif., last year. Matt Mariani, who handles sales and marketing for the company, shared some fun facts about California almonds.
DID YOU KNOW...
> Almonds are the No. 2 agricultural crop in California, second to dairy, and are valued at $5.3 billion.
> More than 90% of California almond farms are family farms.
> California’s almond orchards are primarily in the San Joaquin and Sacramento valleys that run between the Sierra Nevada and Pacific Coast mountain ranges.
> On almond trees, flowers form before the leaves, opposite from other trees.
> Almond orchards are the first food source of the spring for bees used to pollinate the crop.
> Almonds are a stone fruit, which share characteristics with apricots and peaches – their exterior is fuzzy like a peach!
> Depending on the variety, it takes two to four years until nuts can be harvested from a new orchard.
> Almonds have three parts — the shell, the hull and the nut.
> Almond harvest typically starts in mid-August and runs through October.
> Harvesters shake the fruit off the tree, and it dries for a few days before being swept into rows and scooped up.
> Discarded hulls and shells are sold as livestock feed and bedding.
> In the past two decades, California almond growers have reduced the amount of water needed to grow a pound of almonds by 33%.
Credits:
Photos by Pamela Riemenschneider and the Almond Board of California