Walnuts to market

Craig Love is emptying the nut cart onto an elevator that loads the walnuts into a large trailer. The nuts are then taken to the huller and dryer.

Most of the walnuts are picked up and out of the field but we have people asking what happens to them after that. Here is the rest of the story.

The trucks loaded with walnuts are taken to a huller to be cleaned and dried. The huller is a large assemblage of machinery. The walnuts are unloaded from the bottom of the truck into a pit set in the ground.

From there a conveyer belt moves them up out of the pit and through a water bath. Next they go through a series of rotating cages and brushes where any remaining pieces of hull are removed from the nuts. Leaves and other debris are also removed.

Then they are passed through a device called an air leg. The air leg uses suction to remove empty and shriveled nuts putting them in the throw-away bin. The suction of the air leg must be adjusted for each batch of nuts processed. Different varieties and even similar nuts harvested under different conditions vary in weight.

After the air leg, the nuts are usually run through an electronic color sorter. This device can detect changes in color of the nuts and can kick off stained or blemished ones.

The next step is the sorting table. This is made up of a conveyer belt moving at about counter height. Workers stand on both sides picking out any bad nuts that may still be present. After the sorting table, many hullers use another air leg to further refine the batch of nuts.

Next they are put in bins with warm air blowing through them to dry the nuts. Most hullers have electronic sensing moisture meters that allow them to get the desired amount of dryness. In the past, nuts were usually over-dried, which is fine for the nuts but causes the grower to loose tonnage.

After they are dry, the nuts are again loaded into a truck for shipment to the packer. On the way the nuts are usually run through one to two additional air legs to remove light and small nuts. These are placed in a separate bin. They have found this helps the growers get a slightly better grading of their nuts at the packer. The bins of removed nuts are sent in to the packer separately.

When the truck arrives at the packer, it is first weighed and a sample of the walnuts is taken. The sample is examined for quality, with each nut being checked for size and appearance. Each nut is then cracked and the kernel is then checked for color and quality.

The results of the grading, plus the total weight of that delivery, are recorded onto a grade sheet. Months later, after the market price for walnuts is determined, the grower is paid according to the information on the grade sheet.

The packer then processes and packages the nuts for shipment all over the world. And that is the rest of the story.

Walnut harvest 3

A 1979 Ramacher pickup machine operated by Charlene Love.

Walnut harvest for us is winding down. We are almost done with the first time through the orchard. Our children even came to help out a couple of days. Extra help is always nice.

Last week we wrote about sweeping walnuts into rows. After that we go over the rows with the stick picker described in our Sept. 28, 2007 blog.

Then the walnuts are finally ready to be picked up. This is done with a pickup machine.

There are two main styles of pickup machines. One is pulled by a tractor that also provides power to the pickup machine. The other is self-propelled, having its own engine. Both types are still made today.

The choice to purchase one or the other depends on mostly how much money a buyer wants to spend, as well as their particular farming conditions.

Before there were pickup machines, walnuts had to be picked up by hand. That was a backbreaking job that required huge amounts of labor for even a small acreage. Mechanical harvesting was an obvious need. The first pickup machines began to be constructed in the late 1950s.

One of our relatives had a very early pickup machine. It was built on a large frame, had six wheels and two small one-cylinder engines. Everything was powered with long vee-belts and pulleys. It would creep down a row getting about one hour between breakdowns. But it did pick up walnuts and that was a major feat for the day.

Today, pickup machines are more powerful and reliable. Most of them come equipped with diesel engines. Some even come with enclosed cabs for the operator. They are efficient at picking up the nuts and separating them from leaves and other debris.

The walnuts drop into a nut cart that is pulled behind the pickup machine as it goes down the rows. When the cart is full, it is changed out for an empty one and the pickup machine can then continue on down the row. The full cart is taken to a truck trailer and loaded onto it with a field elevator.

Many larger farms now use the bank-out type of pickup machine. In that case, the picked up nuts are stored in a permanently attached bin. When the bin is full, a transfer truck pulls up behind the pickup machine and a conveyer belt loads the stored nuts into the transfer truck. All this is done without stopping the pickup machine. The transfer truck then drives to the field elevator, loads the nuts into a truck trailer and then drives back to the pickup machine for another load.

Our pickup machine was manufactured in 1979 by the Ramacher Company, now located in Chico. It is self-propelled with a gas engine. We usually have to harvest our orchard at least twice each season, so this is a good machine for us.

Walnut harvest 2

Nuts are being blow and swept with a 1983 Weis McNair sweeper operated by Suzanne Love.

Last week we talked about the first step in walnut harvest, which is shaking the trees. Next the nuts are swept into rows down the center of the tree rows to prepare for harvesting. The machine that does that is called a sweeper.

There is quite a variety of sweepers available today. Most new ones are diesel powered, self-propelled units with an air conditioned cab. A cab is nice as sweeping walnuts is a dirty job.

Sweepers can also be installed on tractors. The tractor-mounted sweeper has some advantages in that it is less expensive to purchase, as it has no engine. The drawback is that it ties up a tractor and has to be taken on and off each harvest season.

The first real sweepers were small walk-behind machines with a lawnmower engine for power. It produced a narrow sweep of four feet or less. Sweepers today commonly have sweep widths of eight feet or more. The actual sweep is accomplished by either a rotating rubber flight or a reel arrangement. They are actually much like a hay rake, only smaller.

It became apparent early on that a sweeper going around trees leaves a lot of nuts that must be hand raked. And while the original sweepers did not have them, all sweepers today have air blowers to blow the walnuts out of the tree row. As sweeper engines have gotten more powerful over the years, the blowers have also become larger.

In addition to the sweeper, or perhaps because of it, a second key ingredient in getting a good sweeper job is the condition of the surface of the ground. Ground that is flat, level and weed-free is a breeze to sweep and there will hardly be one lost nut. Sweeping in grass and uneven ground is a challenge and even the best of the new sweepers will leave little piles of nuts in all the ruts and holes.

Our sweeper was manufactured in 1983 by the Weis McNair Company of Chico. It has a four-cylinder air-cooled gas engine and makes a seven-foot wide sweep. Unfortunately, it does not have an air-conditioned cab so the operator gets very dirty. The engine has also been overhauled at least twice.

We have a spare sweeper to use in case of a breakdown with the Weis. It is an older, smaller sweeper but can get the job done.

Once the nuts are rowed up we run a stick picker through the rows to get the bigger sticks out that came down when the trees were shook. Our Sept. 28, 2007 blog on Walnut harvest talked about the stick picker.

Walnut harvest 1

A 1979 OMC Shaker operated by Craig Love.

Walnut harvest has begun. In some orchards they started more than a week ago but our first day was Monday.

The first thing to do is to shake the trees. When driving by an orchard soon to be harvested, it certainly looks like a lot of nuts on the ground. Even so, it is still necessary to shake all the trees in order to get most of the nuts.

In the past, say before 1950, most walnut trees were shook by hand. Workers would swat the branches with long bamboo poles. Other workers would climb the trees and attempt to bounce up and down on the limbs to get the nuts to come down.

In those days the orchards were generally smaller, with blocks of different varieties taking up only five or ten acres. Labor was cheap in then, which was a good thing because it took a lot of workers to shake an orchard.

The first mechanical shakers were contraptions that attached to the back of a tractor. They had a long arm (15 or 20 feet) with a hook that would catch a large branch. The power was engaged and the arm rapidly pulled back and forth against the branch, thus shaking down the walnuts.

It actually shook the trees fairly well, if the branches were not too large. But it was time-consuming to have to reposition the tractor for each branch and the hook could do a lot of damage to the branches if not handled just right. Plus, a team of workers were needed to rake the nuts out of the way so the tractor could move without running over them.

About 1965 or so the first self-propelled hydraulic shakers were produced. These were a great improvement over the older systems. They were built on pickup chassis modified to hold the shaker apparatus. They were driven right up to the tree and the limbs were grabbed with a hydraulically-operated clamp.

The shaking was done with a hydraulic motor which moved rotating weights via a long belt. The wheels had rotating sweepers to keep from running over nuts. The first ones were not too effective, but the idea has been continually improved upon since.

The shakers of today bear some similarity to the older ones but are greatly improved. The most striking difference is that the newer shaker models are on three wheels instead of four. This gives them greatly improved maneuverability. And, because labor costs today are so much higher than in the past and technology is comparatively much cheaper than it used to be, every effort is made to automate and reduce labor requirements.

The cabs are air-conditioned and sound insulated with complete stereo systems. The shaker pads are self-lubricating and water cooled so that the operator does not have to get out and grease and change them every 20 minutes or so. It is said that one of the newer air-conditioned shakers is as effective as two of the old ones. There are new models of shakers out now, one of which is called “The Bullet,” that can shake five to seven trees a minute!

Our shaker is a 1979 model, built by OMC Corporation. It has the three-wheel stance instead of the older four-wheel types, and is fully hydraulic. It does not have an air conditioned cab, however, which at least is one less thing to have to repair.

The operator is separated from the engine only by a piece of 3/4-inch plywood. This makes this machine rather loud and hot to run. It has a hydraulic system for the shaking which also runs an older style of wheel sweeps. This shaker works out well for our trees, which are older and very large.

It takes a large farming operation to be able to afford and utilize a new shaker. We can take a little extra time and still be able to use our older shaker.

We will share more about the process of walnut harvest next time.

Adoption

Pictured are some of the brochures available with adoption information.

Adoption for some brings good memories and for others it brings bad memories. Today adoption is handled much differently than in the past. It is a unique experience for each individual birth parent and adoptive family.

There are more choices available along with help to make those choices. Bethany Christian Service is one place that offers that kind of help. We recently learned that they have a new office in Redding.

Bethany Christian Services is based in Grand Rapids, Michigan with locations throughout our nation. Their services are available to birth parents before, during and after delivery and placement. The counseling is free of charge and free from pressure.

Counselors help birth parents explore the options available to them. The move today is toward openness for those who choose adoption. This is where the birth parent and adoptive family stay in contact in some form. It could be from letters and pictures to direct contact either by telephone, e-mail or letter. It could also involve face to face visits.

The birth parents can have the joy of knowing they chose a quality life for their child. They will be able to choose the adoptive family. Also they can also know their child is growing and developing as they continue some form of contact.

The counselors are there to answer all questions as the birth parents explore what is right for them. They help them make a plan they can live with long term. The agency also handles all the legal details and there is no cost to the birth parents.

Birth parents can also meet with others who have chosen adoption for their child. They can ask questions and listen to their experiences. Families that have adopted a child are also available for them to meet with and to answer questions about how they see the process.

If the birth mother is in need of housing during pregnancy there is a home for them to live at. There is one of these homes located in Northern California.

The services provided there are all free and include: counseling, childbirth classes and labor support, referrals for community and education programs, arrangements for prenatal care, assistance in obtaining Medi-Cal coverage, clothing and personal hygiene products, bus passes or transportation assistance.

They can accommodate up to six residents at a time. There is a laundry room and supplies are provided. A telephone is available for local calls. Phone cards are required for long distance calls. They also serve healthy and nutritious foods.

Spiritual needs are also addressed. The ministry is operated and funded by local churches and individuals. Residents and staff attend weekly worship services. If a resident is of a different faith, she is welcome to attend a service of her choice. An in-home Bible study is also available.

Always be informed and make a choice that can be lived with long term.

Brochures that help answer question for birth parents are available at Care Net Pregnancy Center, 127 Main Street, Red Bluff, CA. Their phone number is 530-528-8112. Walk-ins are welcome for free pregnancy tests as well as information on all options available to pregnant women. Appointments are also available.

The Bethany Christian Services local office is at 966 Maraglia Street, Redding, CA. Their phone number is 530-224-7700. Appointments usually can be arranged as early as the day a client calls or the following day at the latest.