Bella Viva: Sep/Nov Newsletter

The Autumn Harvest
It's now fall and we are moving on to nuts and the late season fruits such as pears, prunes, and grapes.

This year has been great for almonds. The trees have had a good crop and the almonds are coming off the trees well. To the left you can see my brother Henry shaking the trees in our almond orchard. Harvesting almonds is probably one of the most fun of all the harvests because we are able to use interesting machines in the process.

It basically takes 4 machines to harvest almonds and most other nuts. The shaker, seen to the left, literally grabs the tree and shakes the nuts off of it. The Sweeper comes next and sweeps the scattered nuts into the middle of each row. The pickup-machine drives right over the row of nuts and cleans much of the trash from the nuts as it puts the nuts in a cart. The cart of nuts is then emptied onto a conveyor that brings the nuts into the top of a truck. The truck takes the nuts to a huller and sheller where the hulls and shells are removed, leaving nothing but the meat of the almonds.

Because of these machines, we can harvest almonds with just a handful of people. What once took weeks and dozens of people now takes a few days with just a few people.

You are invited to take an online tour of our farm and see the almond harvest! Hope you enjoy it!
Michael Colombo

Click Here to see the ALMOND HARVEST