Saturday, August 31, 2013

Bank out cart discharging into a shuttle cart for transport to the elevator. Or say, Hauling almonds..

Wind rows at Carpenter ranch. Looks like we ll have close to the same number of loads as last year but we are squeezing an extra half cart or so into each load.

Final yield will depend on crackout (different varieties of in-shell almonds produce different kernel percentages so crackout is measured as weight-of-the-almond-kernels/weight-of-all-almonds-with-hulls-and-shells) but we are optimistic.


Friday, August 16, 2013

Thursday, August 15, 2013

Sweeping nuts into the middle of the rows

To recap the almond harvesting process:
  1. We shake the trees to ensure all nuts fall down 
  2. Allow the nuts to dry on the floor for several days 
  3. Sweep the nuts into windrows
  4. Pick up nuts using a harvester. 
Needless to say, we pray for dry weather throughout the harvesting operation.