Those of you have been following me on social media know that I have been in California on invitation from California walnut commission in Last week of September. It’s been really a fascinating experience to see how walnuts reach from the tree to our plates.
Now most of us know walnuts or Akhrot (in Hindi) are good for our health. Walnuts are rich in Omega 3 fats , which makes it good for heart health and rich in many nutrients including vitamins and antioxidants. ( I will talk about it later) First lets see the journey of walnuts from tree to our plates.
As I mentioned earlier, Since mid September to mid October is harvest season of walnuts. I visited California in USA during last week of September to see how the walnuts are grown on tree, harvested and processed in state of art facilities so as to preserve maximum nutrition.
Few Glimpses from the Walnut Orchard Tour and Processing of Walnuts
Walnuts with hardshell are incased in green pod as a outer covering when they grow on a tree.
To harvest them from a tree a machine is used. The machine is called shaker, the claws of the machine grab the truck of walnut tree and shake the walnut tree.
During this process walnuts fall down from the tree and collected on the ground.
After that sweeper pushes the walnuts into neat rows from where these are collected and sent to processing unit for washing cleaning and sorting.
The processing facility we visited was a very large one with state of art machines for cleaning, sorting and grading walnuts depending on the colour, size etc.
I posted a live face book Video on my face book page you can check that to see in details.
After that walnuts are shelled with machines and finally sorted in various bins for packaging and ultimately sending them to various parts of world.
I am told that there is great demand coming in from various market and California walnuts in one of biggest suppliers of the walnuts in the world.
After a great day of visiting walnut orchard and California walnut processing facility. It was time to sample delicious menus crafted by various Chefs. We got to taste special menus, the highlight of the dishes was use of California walnuts in various ways. Some of the dishes from our meals shown below.
Salads, rice, desserts, breakfast menus all using California walnuts in various innovative ways so as to include this delicious and very healthy tree nut into regular diet. I created few Walnuts recipes in association with California walnuts using California walnuts. You can try them too Chocolate Walnut Fudge , Persian Chicken , Veggie and Walnut Kabab
I will share more of what I learned in some of the recipes posts and recipe Videos I have created using California walnuts. Hope you all will enjoy them too.
Disclaimer - This tour was organised by California walnuts, however opinions and experienced here are my own.
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