Almonds

When my parents came to visit me in California we rented a car and headed for a national park. While I was busy at the wheel observing the road ahead, my parents were busy observing everything else, discussing plants and animals as we went along. Somewhere in the Central Valley, I understood, we were passing by some almond plantations. And for all I know that's about as close as I've ever been to an almond tree.

Interestingly, I never saw fresh almonds for sale while I lived in California (despite California being the single largest almond producer world-wide). While on vacation in southern France this summer, I suddenly found fresh almonds at the supermarket one day. Needless to say, I bought a handful just to have a look.


The fresh almonds (lower left corner) could be peeled (with some effort) to leave the shell bare (upper right corner). Cracking the shell of a fresh almond revealed the skin of the almond below which there was a white, rather soft nut that didn't taste all that much like the almonds I usually get - I'd say the taste was reminiscent of fresh beechnuts (although I haven't had those in many years).

Letting the almonds dry for a month or so, the peel could no longer readily be removed from the shell. Cracking open the shell at this stage revealed a dried, shrunk almond (upper left corner). Although very thin and having a funny texture, this almond tasted much more like the almonds I usually get. Soaking the dry almond in cold water overnight, produced nuts (lower right corner) there were quite similar to the ones found when cracking open the fresh almonds.