Archive for the ‘Farmin’’ Category

Really Nice Nuts

Thursday, November 18th, 2010

As Tim wrote in his blog, we had a very nice crop of Pistachio nuts this year and for that we are very thankful.

Checking Out the Crop with Tim

Checking Out the Crop with Tim

One thing about being a farmer is that you never know what will happen and how the crop is going to turn out until you actually harvest.
One of the best things about this year’s crop is the size and quality of the nuts. Almost all were the largest size (called “Colossal”) and very little stain or insect damage. Also, there are usually quite a few “blanks”, shells that haven’t filled with meat, but this year there were very few of these.

A Bin of Big Beautiful Nuts

A Bin of Big Beautiful Nuts

Most of the farmers think the wet winter and spring we had was the reason for this but no one is really sure. Like I say, you never know. The longer I farm, the more I learn. But it all added up to a great crop and happy faces here at SLO Farm. In a couple of weeks we will start pruning and begin the whole cycle all over again. For now, like I do after every harvest, I’m off to Canada to go fishing!!

Update from Canada

Update from Canada

2009 Harvest

Saturday, December 19th, 2009
Harvest 2009

Harvest 2009

It’s pretty quiet right now on the farm. We completed the 2009 harvest back in October and we won’t do too much until pruning in January, which is fine with me as the harvest is always a tremendously busy time. The pistachio nuts have to be shaken from the trees, loaded into trucks and taken to the processors where they are cleaned, have their hulls removed and super dried to seal in the flavor.

Shaking the Trees

Shaking the Trees

This all happens within 24 hours. When you consider that this year’s harvest in California was over 350 million pounds, that’s a lot of activity. Actually, we had expected almost 450 million pounds, so it was a bit less than we thought it might be. San Luis Obispo Farm was right on target to what we expected, however. One theory is that there were quite a few undeveloped nuts on the trees down south. These nuts are selected out at the processor when they float instead of sinking and are skimmed off and discarded. We didn’t seem to have too many of these “floaters” so our crop was about what we thought it would be.

After every harvest I manage to fit in a fishing trip. This time I went to Alaska. Caught some really nice fish up there.

2009 Pistachios

2009 Pistachios

We will be pruning in a few weeks and I’ll let you know how that goes.