All of the stone fruit - almond

One resident of the Canary Islands has told an interesting story about almonds as grown, harvested, processed, and what it eats.




I'll tell you briefly how to grow almonds. Almonds are often ranked among the nuts, but in fact it is a stone fruit. Size and shape similar to almond peach pits. We have a plot of about 20 trees.

On our island (La Palma, Canary Islands) almond bloom begins in late January. Looks incredibly beautiful, all in white and pink:



On the island of almond blossoms white, pale pink and bright pink:



Shaped fruit - dry velvety pubescent oval odnokostyanka:



Yields on the island are always plentiful. Especially in the north of the island. In February, here are celebrating a famous holiday almonds. Incredibly beautiful sight - white and pink sea of ​​flowering trees, beautifully decorated carts and people in folk costumes ...

In early June the trees look so already:



Here green fruit close:



Foliage trees shed in August, cunning nature - do not waste energy and water on the greens, but only on the fruit. In early September, the shell ripe fruit begins to burst. Against the background of a white cat is especially beautiful and clear :)



And after two or three weeks, the tree looks like this: dry pericarp when ripe separated from the stone:



Then gather the fruits:



Purified



As they are cleaned, clearly tell later. Here we see ourselves almond nuts. On La Palma has a very old variety almonds, it's easy to recognize - Walnut rough and flatter, and it formed the letter Y! Quite clearly visible. See? We grow two varieties of almonds. Class II - a round, smooth and smaller.



Here more clearer skin without nut:



On the island is growing more and more varieties, some of them very large:



I'll tell you now as going almonds. Harvesting requires a long stick to 4 meters in length and a few large networks. Network is put around the tree, stick begin to shoot down the almonds. Work, with his head for hours and banging his stick on the branches, difficult and very tiring. Fruits fly away, you have to collect a large radius around the tree. Sorry, photographs are taken against the light, a little too dark:



Shoot down the fruit is not always easy, some "kleyutsya" much to the branches:



Those branches that have grown too high, certainly closer to spring trimmed:



Almond falls on the web:



They collected all in one big pile and sort:



The almonds, which gives in, cleaned of dried shell:







One that is impossible to separate the pericarp hands, collected separately. This is a lot of almonds, if before the harvest were rainy days: sheath swells, then the sun dries quickly and is difficult to clean up after her. We have to be soaked in water or split manually:



Now we have to work with a stick on the other side:



We move on to the next tree. Thomas again with a stick:



When very hot, then we move to where more shadows:



Falls in the collection not only almonds:



We have many helpers)) until they receive their own, will not leave alone: ​​





For how much was collected and purified:



Beggars



Izzy here as nutcracker, very cleverly opens nuts:





Work one day:



Now, still need to clear the almonds, which is not cleared okolplodnik hands. Soak for a few hours, the pericarp swells and amenable to manipulation:







Now you have to bone dry well. Dry them in the sun:



And then by the end of the dryer:



Previously split the almonds by hand, doing it women. Very long and low-paid jobs. Until now, the festival almond contests for the best and agile ovensWaffle. Now, almost everyone goes with her to the village to harvest this infernal machine - are split nuts. The car is already very old, and it often breaks mend since without it completely trouble shaking the whole village, if it breaks down:



Almonds are loaded on top of the machine and in this cylinder nuts split:



transported further along the paths of such nets:



Falls through the mesh itself nut, but through different outputs - different sized shell fragments:









Front left slowly going almonds. Rumble in the room terrible, they all go only with headphones:



Home we brought it here, ie all that is split and sort the machine itself:



But among the shell a lot more "broken" nut:



Now we must also hand over a handful of a handful, all bust:



In the nut too many "broken" nut:



But what a delicious nut!



And many hours later ...



... Of almost 50 kg turned harvested almonds about 15 kg of refined:



Of these, 3.5 kg of "broken", we eat it yourself or use for sweets:



Work is finished!



And now I'll show you more that you can do all of the delicious almond. The first is, of course, almond cream, a special delicacy of our village:



How to do it? I went to the girl who practice it and took a few photos. Here in this stove its twist in the barrel and slightly roasted (40º) for about 45 minutes. Then almonds until the next morning cools:



Then it is charged here in this car-grinder:



And voila! Already finished product goes into prepared jars!



His carefully weighed:



And roll:



Glue labels:



Done!



Now even small recipe from our local cuisine - palmersky cheese almonds. Something very similar to marzipan. For this we need here is



In the process:





Quesillo de almendras ready!



Very tasty:



And a few almond goodies that are sold in our market:







Source: kak-eto-sdelano.livejournal.com