The husband went out last week and spent about 20 minutes filling a big bag of almonds off our tree. It's really grown this last year, particularly since I haven't pruned it, unlike last year. Still, this year's harvest is similar to last year's at around 160 nuts. They fill my biggest handmade (yucca and sycamore) basket and are waiting in the kitchen for our Christmas stollen bread once again.
Because the tree hasn't been pruned (and it's too late in the year to do so, as it's susceptible to a fungal disease), it looks like quite a lot of the branches won't be within reach for harvest next year--similarly, out of reach for hand-pollination (rather more important). I guess we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. To be honest, while in theory I'd love to have hundreds and hundreds of almonds, in actuality they're just too hard to shell by hand. Yes it'd be wonderful to make almond paste more than once a year, but is it worth the labor? Time will tell.
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