What does harvest time mean to the life of an almond farmer? It’s like the ‘Grand Finale’ to any good movie, the climax of a novel, like an athlete’s championship game, or the graduation of any student. It’s the last big push…..the hardest of all efforts………and then the Celebration!
An Almond Farmer has closely watched, nurtured, and tended to their orchards through the different seasons throughout the year, and now the last step, harvest, will determine their year’s success. Both a time of utmost intensity and stress, they will orchestrate the many moving parts of harvest time. It’s the common language on our country roads between farmers, “well, are you ready?” Ready for the whirlwind of harvest intensity. However, it’s all fascinating as we get to ‘see’ and experience the results of what the crop will bring, the grand finale!
Timing is everything!
Since the farmer doesn’t have endless amounts of equipment, determining the ins and outs of the equipment from orchard to orchard is a delicate scheduling act. Harvesting equipment is complicated and brings on inevitable repairs and breakdowns that put curveballs constantly during harvest time juggling the constant ‘unexpected’ like breakdowns and weather. There is no magic harvest schedule that a farmer can follow year to year. Rather, every year is entirely different based on the weather, the orchard’s health and age, pests, and much more. Regardless, the almond farmer must race against time to get the orchards, and the different almond varieties off the trees and to the end buyer as quickly as possible to assure the quality is maintained and the rains in late fall are avoided.
Windrow
Shaking
It’s so important that almonds are shaken at the right time. The outer hull of the almond must be dry with low moisture, to be easily shaken off. If almonds are harvested too early there will be many ‘mummies’, (almonds that weren’t able to be shaken off the tree because it wasn’t ripe and dry enough). This is not only a waste of potential profit but causes more work for the farmer later since the mummies must be shaken off in winter to eliminate pests in the orchard that would feed on the mummies and increase mold exposure in the orchard and trees. Determining the readiness is done by paying close visual attention to every almond variety in an orchard. Then, the well-tuned-up ‘Shakers’ are moved in with the operator who will quickly visit each tree and shake the almonds off
Sweeping
loading the doubles
After the almonds are shaken to the ground they lie there to sun-dry for around a week’s time where their moisture level will drop enough to be trucked to the Huller/Sheller. During that drying time, the sweeping is done. The Sweeper tractor does just that, it has a sweeper head in the front and blowers on the side. After several passes in each row of the orchard a nice clean ‘wind-row’ is created which is the long pile of the almonds that lays down the center of the row. This will allow for the almond to be picked up properly.
The Picking Up
The ‘train’ of equipment moves to the orchard next. The pickup machine leads the ‘train’ and using belts and chains straddles the wind-row and picks up the almonds from the orchard floor while blowing out dirt, leaves, and some small sticks. The almonds move on a conveyor belt in the back of the machine and feed the Bankout machine, the next piece of equipment in the train. The Bankout is a holding tractor device with a large moving screw that levels out the bed to avoid almond overflow. Finally, the Bankout drives the full load to the orchard parameter where he’ll dump the almonds, (yes, like a dump truck), on another conveyer that will feed a set of double empty trailers to be filled. The last step is a semi-truck
The final Product
This entire process must be done a minimum of two times for every orchard. That’s right, we have multiple harvests for every orchard since almonds are not self-pollinating, we must plant different varieties to get pollination and thus an almond crop. So, you can see how ‘timing is everything! The farmer must quickly make critical decisions daily to ensure the almond varieties are harvested at the right time and ensure the valued crew members and equipment are ready to roll when the crop is perfectly ripe. We are challenged by threatening pests that can destroy an entire crop and compromise the quality of the almonds that are harvested quickly. However, they have to be dried out properly also to avoid mold growth and be successfully hulled and shelled. As you can see, almond harvest is the grand finale that takes our mighty farmers and their crews every ounce of might and focus so that we can celebrate the crop’s bounty at the end of the season. Maisie Jane’s is so proud to offer you the results of this amazing journey of almonds and all the loving hands that bring them to you every step of the way.
Cheers to a safe and bountiful almond harvest!
Maisie Jane and Her Nutty Team.
