tropit

We bought our ranch about 8 years ago. It was vacant land, but many years ago had been used to raise sheep and for harvesting timber. Even before we even had the house up, we had a veggie garden planted and an orchard started. We put in 2 almond trees about 4 years ago and this year we have almonds!!! Lots of them!!!

I love almonds. I think that they are my favorite nut, with hazelnuts being my second favorite. (Yup, we've got a small hazelnut tree that we planted 2 years ago, but no nuts yet.) I use almonds in all sorts of ways from homemade almond milk and cheese, to almond extract, to almond flour, almond liqueur, almond butter...the list goes on and on. I usually buy them in bulk and their expensive, especially for the organic kind, but now I have my own Free ones. I'm stoked!

So, how to process the harvest? I've got the nuts de-husked from their, "drupes," and drying on cookie sheets out in the sun. I need to invest in a nutcracker, but I don't know which kind. I'd love any tips on how to cure them, cook with them, etc. Please bring on your favorite almond recipes!

BTW...did you know that almond growers call them, "aaaamonds?" That's because the shake the "L" out of them when they mechanically shake the nuts from the trees.

~ C