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Joy!
The Winter's nearly gone!
Soon will Spring come dancing on;
And, before her, here dance I,
Pink like sunrise in the sky.
Other lovely things will follow;
Soon will cuckoo come, and swallow;
Birds will sing and buds will burst,
But the Almond is the first!
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Almonds
The almond tree is a very pretty tree and is one of the first fruit trees to blossom in Spring. Because of this, it has been regarded through the ages by many cultures as a bringer of new life and fertility. It's a relatively a small tree growing to about 30 feet high, with the fruit forming singly and in clusters on the
branches.
A natural draw-back of the early flowering means that the tree needs a warm dry climate in order to produce well.
Almond tree are not self-pollinating so at least two different varieties of trees are necessary. Many almond orchards have beehives in place to assist with the pollination.
Once the fruit set, the hulls start to harden until they eventually begin to split around 4 months later. When the fruit is fully mature, the hulls completely burst open exposing the shell allowing the kernel (nut) to begin drying out.
Once on the ground they are should be allowed to dry before hulling
(removing the nuts from the outer hulls.) The nuts can then be shelled, blanched, chopped or ground.
Although almonds are thought to have originated in western or central Asia, by 4000BC they had spread extensively and have been widely used for both culinary and other purposes for thousands of years. By the late 700 AD Arab traders who by now had set up regular trade with Spain and Portugal introduced the almond tree to those countries and almonds are still a popular ingredient in both cuisines. They were introduced to Northern India in the 16th century by Persians immigrants who settled in the region and as with Portugal and
Spain.
During the Middle Ages, almonds were an important trading commodity in Europe as their consumption in medieval cookery rocketed. Recipes using almond "flour" dating from this period have been found and almond "milk" was used as a substitute for milk on religious fasting days. In the 1700's Franciscan monks transported almond trees from Spain to California and today US almond growers supply more than 75 percent of worldwide production.
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