As grown, harvested and processed almonds

I want to show you how to build an almond, if it is done manually, as it is treated, cleaned and split. That is how it was done for centuries in this small island in the middle of the ocean.
Many other interesting details. And will show you, what it eats :)



Will talk briefly about how to grow almonds.

Almonds are often ranked among the nuts, although in reality he is stone fruit.
The size and shape of almonds similar to a peach pit. We have a plot of about 20 trees.

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





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





3. Formed fruit — dry velvety-pubescent oval Odnokolenko:





4. Crops on the island are always plentiful. Especially in the North of the island. In February is celebrated the famous festival of the almond.
Incredibly beautiful sight – white-pink sea of flowering trees, beautifully decorated carts and people in folk costumes...

In early June, the trees look like this:





5. Here grows closer:





6. The leaves a tree drops in August, the artifice of nature — not to waste energy and water on the greens, only the fruit.
In early September the shell of the ripe fruit starts to burst. On the background of a white cat is especially beautiful and clear :)





7. And after two or three weeks, the tree looks like this: dry pericarp when ripe separates from the bones:





8. Then the fruit is harvested:





9. Clean:





10. As they clean, tell you clearly later.
There are almond nuts themselves. On La Palma there is a very old variety of almond, it is easy to recognize – walnut rough and more flat, and it formed the letter Y! It is clearly seen. See? We grow two varieties of almonds. Second grade – over round, smooth and smaller.





11. Here even more clearly without the skin nut:





12. On the island also grow other varieties, some of them very large:





13. Tell now like going to the almonds.
Harvesting requires a long stick up to 4 meters in length and several large networks.
Network put around the tree with a stick begin to knock down the almonds.
To work, his head for hours and tapping a stick on the branches, tough and very tiring.
Fruit fly far away you have to collect in a large radius around the tree.
Sorry, the photos were taken against light, a little dark:





14. Shoot down the fruit is not always easy, some "glued" much to the branches:





15. Those branches that are already too high up, definitely closer to spring pruned:





16. Almond falls on the network:





17. Collect them all in one big pile and sorted:





18. The almonds, that is, purified from the dried shell:





19.





20.





21. The one with the pericarp is impossible to separate hands, is collected separately.
Such almonds is a lot, if before the harvest was rainy days:
sheath swells, then the sun quickly dries and later it is difficult to clean.
You have to soak in water or to split manually:





22. Now we have to work with a stick from the other side:





23. Here the slope is under 40º, it is very difficult to collect all the roll down:

 





24.Helpers have a lot)) Until you get yours, the rest will not leave:





 





33. All in a day:





Now I have to clean the almonds, okoloplodnykh which is not cleared by hand.
Soak for a few hours, the pericarp swells and lends itself to manipulation:









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





And then another, until the end in the dryer:





Before almonds were split by hand, doing it women. Very long and low-paid work.
Still on holiday almonds contests for the best and nimble oreshnitsa.
Now almost everyone travels with their harvest in the village to this infernal machine – here split nuts.
The car is already very old, often broken and mend it, because without it, all the trouble, the whole village shakes if it breaks:





Almonds are loaded from above in this cylinder nuts to crack:





And transported further along such paths of the meshes:





Mesh falls through the nut and through the different outputs – different size of shell fragments:









 

The roar in the room is terrible, only go with the headphones:





46. Home we brought this, i.e. everything that has split and graded the machine itself:





But the shell is still very much "broken" nut:





Now have another hand, handful for handful, ALL to sort out:





In the walnut is also a lot of "broken" nut:





But what a tasty nut!





. And many hours later...





... of almost 50 kg of harvested almonds got about 15 kg of peeled:





Of these, 3.5 kg "broken", his we eat or use for candy. Done! published

 

P. S. And remember, only by changing their consumption — together we change the world! ©

 

 

Source: velo-de-isis.livejournal.com/