People often wonder how we get the almonds off the trees. This shaker machine is the key. It clamps onto each tree and gives them a good shake, rattling nearby houses in the process. After the trees get their shaking, a lot of hard work goes into sweeping the nuts into rows and preparing the orchard for harvest.

This machine harvests the almonds by pulling them from their rows and depositing them in a trailer. It’s a dirty process with plenty of dust flying about.

Glenn follows the harvester with an additional trailer to swap out when the trailer behind the harvester gets full. After swapping trailers, Glenn brings the full trailer to the elevator that will take the almonds from the ground into a larger trailer.

The trailer is placed at the end of a long conveyer belt that takes the almonds from the ground up into a trailer that will haul them to the huller, where their hulls and shells will be removed.

The fleshy exterior of the almond is like its peach cousin's. This exterior is called a hull and dries and shrivels as the almond matures.